Getting Ready To Trim

I've spent quite some time today to adjust the cowl and determine what and where it needs to be trimmed more. For that purpose I let the cowl halves overlap the skin. That way you can see the edge of the skin and mark it with blue tape on the fiberglass. Just keep in mind that this gets you only close but not perfect as the halves are at a small angel to each other.

I used the spinner backplate as another reference and small wedges to secure the cowl halves in the right position.

First I was concerned about the gap between the halves but I believe it to disappear when both are clearing the skins after they have been trimmed.

What does still concern me is the clearance of the oil cap. It appears that it sits awfully close to the edge of the cutout as well as high enough to maybe interfere with the yet to be installed access door.

This will be the place for the oil cooler...

.. and this will have the channel to get air to the water cooler. You can also see the nice fit of the curve to the skin and the hinge on that side.

Before the final masking I decided to reduce the gap to the spinner backplate a bit and reposition the cowl slightly to get a symmetric fit around the backplate.

Then I put the trim tape on, only on the rear end of the lower cowl. The horizontal edge will change when the cowl eventually clears the skin.

Tomorrow morning I will take the assembly off and start trimming. I just hope I can get them back in the same position.