Cowling Adjustments

I can turn my attention back to finishing up the cooling baffling and cowling fitment that was interrupted months ago with the move to TX. One thing that's true is that no two RVs are exactly alike. Even when built precisely to plans. This becomes most apparent when installing fiberglass and steel parts that were welded together. There are manufacturing and installation differences that sometimes aren't addressed in the plans that you need to have solutions for. In a perfect world, the lower cowling intake bottom aft edges would sit 3/32" above the adjacent aft baffling so the rubber seals installed under the cowling lower lips have a straight and smooth transition to the aft baffles and air filter bracket. My cowling sits low which will make the underlying rubber seals not function correctly. I grappled with various ways to correct this, finally deciding to build up the lower bottom intakes using flox and fiberglass. Then remove the underlying old fiberglass to effectively raise the cowling intake lip and then provide room underneath to secure the seals and provide them with a straight transition to the aft baffling. After scuffing the areas with 80 grit sandpaper and cleaning the areas with alcohol I created dams along the aft edges with folded aluminum foil taped into position and paste wax as a release agent. Then mixed up flox (fiberglass resin and powdered cotton fibers) to the consistency of peanut butter and applied a layer approx. 5/32" thick. Once cured I will sand it all down smooth, repeating and filling as necessary until it looks good and I've achieved the thickness I need. Then I'll grind away the underlying material thus raising that side until the thickness is back to approximately 1/16". I'll finish it off with a layer of fiberglass cloth to prevent cracks. Then I can move on to the final task of matching the outboards cowling intakes which are also slightly mismatched. I see a lot of sanding in my future.