I started off this morning by pulling the peel ply off the cured 2-ply CF layups on the inside of the top cowling left and right CAMLOC flanges.  I then cleaned up the layups and trimmed the overhanging CF on the edges.

I then mounted the top cowling in place and drilled the very aft and the #2 CAMLOC positions on both sides.  I then removed the top cowling and installed these CAMLOC receptacles.

I will note that my planned types of CAMLOCs (technically SkyBolt used here) changed significantly since the aluminum rigid, adjustable SK215-4 receptacle flanges are much thicker than the SS or the SK245-4 receptacles and I don’t have longer CS rivets on hand.  I had planned on using one stainless steel + 3 aluminum SK215-4 receptacles, but ended up using only 2x SK215-4 + 2x (completely unplanned) SK245-4 receptacles… again, all due to the thickness of the SK215-4 flanges.

After the first pairs of CAMLOC receptacles were installed on the flanges, I then remounted the top cowling and drilled out the last 4 CAMLOC positions (2 each side).  I then repeated the process above by removing the cowling and installing the CAMLOC receptacles on the 5-ply CF flanges.

I then installed the last pair of CAMLOC studs on each side.  With that task completed, ALL my cowling CAMLOCs (and the plane for that matter) are now installed.

Here’s the left side 4 CAMLOCs installed.

And here’s the right side CAMLOCs installed.  The gray tape is prep for the exterior lower edge layups on the top cowl…

Which I started on the left side.  Since I have a decent gap on about the first 6-8″ of the seam between the top cowl flange and the bottom cowl skin, I thought a good bit on how to fill that gap.  Do I use just a bunch of plies of CF?  Should I use foam to keep it light?  Then I remembered a neat little material that I have on-hand… an ace up the sleeve if you will: 2mm (0.078″) Lantor Soric material.  It adds thickness but is very lightweight.

As you can see, I figured out where I needed some filler the most and cut out a piece of the Lantor Soric.  I also made templates of the top cowl lower edge here (using my forms I used during the previous flange layups) and cut out 3 plies of CF, which I then pre-pregged.  I then cut some peel ply as well.

Here I’ve wetted out the top cowl left side lower edge with MGS 285 as well as the Lantor Soric filler piece.  If you look closely, just under the yellow piece of tape, there is a small gap filler ply of CF as well.

I then wet out the pre-pregged 3-ply CF setup and laid up the plies of CF.

And finished off the layup with some peel ply.

I’ll point out that this is simply round one of the lower edge fill.  Since the bottom cowl edge is 5 plies thick, tomorrow I plan on adding another 2-3 CF plies to this layup to create a nice transition and flow at the seam of the top and bottom cowlings.

Clearly I didn’t get to the right side, which I of course plan to do tomorrow.  But with a good layup in hand and curing, I called it a night!