Again, this post covers the last 2 days.  I started by trimming and installing the left side top baffle seals and reinforcement strips.

I then focused on installing the right front side baffle reinforcement strip, first by drilling out the rivet holes (pic #1) and then creating the oval socket extension hole for installing/removing the spark plug in cylinder #4 (pic #2).

I then configured and temp installed the right front baffle seal.

And then set and drilled out the rivet holes on the right aft side baffle reinforcement strip.

After knocking out all the prerequisite prep work, including trimming the top edges of the right side baffle seals, I then gooped up the top baffle seals and riveted them in place with the reinforcement strips.

Here we have the left and right side top baffle seals and reinforcement strips installed.

And another shot of the installed front, left and right side top baffle seals.

After a good bit of getting the baffle seals flipped the correct way, situated and compressed down in proper fashion I was able to get the top cowling fastened into place.

Again, the initial placement of the top cowling with the just-installed baffle seals took a good bit of machinations, but I finally got ‘er on.

My first task was to assess the top cowling front cross baffle and reinforcement rib to see how well it cleared the aluminum baffle wall.  As I could tell by the rivet faces, I’ll be trimming just a bit more of it off so that it clears at least the baffle seal rivets.

After shoving my work light into the engine compartment to light everything up, I then used my trusty inspection mirror to assess the front wall baffle seal.  At every angle I could see it all looked good and firmly pressed up against the inside of the top cowling.

With the pronounced curve of the top cowling on each side —and thus the side baffle walls and seals— I wasn’t surprised to find some bunching up of the side baffle seals.

Here we have the forward side right baffle seal bunched up a good bit.  Near the corner was pretty much corrected by me just smoothing out the baffle, although I will need to trim it a little.

The major wrinkle just above the cylinder rocker cover was remedied by me reaching up with a razor knife and creating a slit until it flattened out.  With pressure on the baffle seal, it wasn’t a perfectly straight cut, but I wanted to do it in situ as to assess the results real time.  I’ll clean up the slit edges when I remove the top cowling.

The left side also had some bunching up both fore (pic #1) and aft (pic #2).

Again, I used a razor knife to cut the slits at the wrinkled seal spots to flatten them out.  And again, not perfect slit edges… but I’ll clean them up after I remove the top cowling.

I’ll reiterate that besides some fairly minor corrective slicing of the baffle seals in a few tactical places, overall I’m very happy with how they’re situated and sealing against the inside of the top cowling.

I called it an early evening to have dinner with Jess.  But before I left the shop, and to help the baffle seals nestle in and conform to the top cowling’s contours, I placed a heated blanket on top of the cowling with a couple of heat lamps shining up from below.  I don’t know how much of an impact this will actually have, since this heat is no way comparable to the heat that the engine will give off while operating, but I figured what the heck… it can’t hurt anything.

Tomorrow I’ll press forward with the lower side and bottom aft baffle seal installs.