I have not gotten much visual progress done as of late. I sorted out the routing and fittings for the oil lines. It seems that I never quite have everything I need when it comes to plumbing. Over the years, I have gathered enough brass and AN fittings to set up my own store, but I still need one more.
Temporarily accepting defeat on the pluming, I moved on to bonding the new lower cowl piece to the existing cowl. I knew when I decided to create the lower cowl shape without it being connected to the plane that it would change once I got the upper and lower cowl in place, but as my friends from the moving industry say "we'll fix that in post" which in airplane terms means with micro later.
So with about 11th billion clecos, I glued it in place. I used West systems epoxy with red dye, again to aid in sanding.
Using the hoist alone to keep the plane in the air requires that the top cowl be off of the plane, but since I need everything screwed into place to keep things aligned, I grabbed a section of catwalk that I had laying around and lowered the plane on to it to make the work on the cooling outlet easier.
I started off with blue foam and roughly shaped it last week. To finish the outlet, I used Scotch 77 to glue it to the existing outlet ramp. Instead of using the lightweight spackling compound that I usually use over foam, I tried another compound. Drywall guys refer to it as "hot mud" since it does not dry, but cures, and does so in about 15 minutes. It does not sand as nicely as the lightweight compound, but its faster and much stiffer. No matter what you use for filler, working on the bottom of something with filler is a pain.
Not a great photo, but the rough outlet shape can be seen. This outlet piece starts at the firewall and the final area where the air comes out is necked down forming a convergent duct.
Hoping to get some glass on it tomorrow morning before work!
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