Splitting the cowl
. I hate single piece cowlings, which is of course exactly what the Krill came with! 2-piece cowls just make life SO MUCH easier to gain access to the engine, etc without having to pull the spinner and prop. PLus....they are SCALE!!! I've never split my own, but with some ideas and encouragement from Krazy Karl I jumped into it.
First thing was to cutout a cardboard template and tape the cowl to it so it will keep its shape and be easier to handle. I marked off on the outside and inside where I wanted to cut, leaving a small section on each side and at the air inlets uncut to keep both halves in alignment. Got out the Dremel with a diamond saw blade, which cuts a pretty thin kerf and carefully followed my lines.
Next came the fiberglass layups. For this I used 6 oz cloth and Gorilla Glue, instead of epoxy (Karl's method). First lay clear packing tape over the inside cowling above the cut line. This is to keep the glue from sticking. Rough up all areas of the cowling below the cut line so the glue will stick well. After cutting my cloth to lengths desired I sprayed some 3M 77 adhesive on one side and placed the cloth into position.
Then heat up the GG bottle to thin it and make it flow easier. Apply and spread with a plastic squeegee or credit card, working the glue into the cloth. The lower portion has glue spread evenly all the way down the cloth, while the upper portion (above the cut) is only spread about an inch or so in the cloth. This is the flange to hold the upper owl in place and will be trimmed later. As the GG starts to set it will expand a bit, so keep the squeegee ready and remove this excess as it does. After a bit it will stop....then let it cure.
After the GG is hard, I finished cutting the separation lines that were left uncut earlier and popped the top of the cowling off the newly formed flange. That was the most nerve-wracking step as at first it didn't seem like it wanted to separate, but with a little pressure here and there and a literal "pop", it finally did
. I marked off some trim lines and with a sharp pair of scissors cut off the excess glass.
The last step was to mark off the screw hole locations and glue in 4-40 blind nuts, which are mounted on small ply tabs.
I was very happy with the end result