Continuing with the spinner - Dad spent some time sorting a template.
This had to be refined a few times. Why Hartzell don't provide (or I can't find it anyway) a template file beats me..... We got close and I have a copy if others want it - drop me an email.
One thing that we have found very useful on the cowls is the original reference lines pre-cutting. Therefore Dad did the same on the spinner - just in case.
I spent the first part of the day removing and re-doing the protective masking on the rear of the forward canopy.
Then we drilled two locations on the canopy.
This was then through drilled onto the canopy ribs. This fixes the rear location of the canopy and the front is against a stop.
The main remaining problem for the forward canopy fitting is the transition between the side ribs and the forward canopy frame. For the rest of the afternoon we trimmed / fitted / refitted and trimmed a bit more, slow steady progress.
The next stage is to try re-fitting the forward canopy skin. This has some 'cut-outs' / ears for the canopy - but are woefully small. I re-sized as shown which will hopefully provide more of a route for the plexi.
To finish I made the cut outs in the spinner that Dad had marked out.
I started with snips - actually worked surprisingly well. In the end I used a sabre saw for the initial cut, plus rotor-burr and finger file for smoothing. The end result fitted VERY well.
It will need some more trimming just to provide a proper clearance, but a fantastic start.
In general after things being a bit down late last week, I'm more positive again, the cowl is coming right. The answers from the list also look promising and similar to my original thoughts. I think we can move the whole cowl backward at least another 1/8" maybe more and hopefully the gaps should 'disappear'. The spinner fits well, the canopy is starting to look like it is going to work and new prop looks great! Oh and summer is starting to happen to ;-) !
