Brief Description: Riveting & Glassing Hinges To Top Cowling - Part 1
Riveting the hinges to the fiberglass cowling seems pretty straight forward. And I guess it was. It was complicated by my desire to added a layer of fiberglass resin with cotton flocking filler at the same time. Its becomes kind of a messy job and you have to remember to keep cleaning all of your tools before the resin starts to setup.
I used two squirts of West System's 105 Resin mixed with one heaping tablespoon of cotton flocking for my mixture. I put a piece of painters tape on the rivet head side of the cowling to keep the resin from oozing out too much, then added a thin coat of the mixture to the surface. I roughed up the hinge surfaces with #60 grit, then clecoed the hinges to the cowling about every 5th hole. I then took the tape off and stuck rivets into the oozing holes and followed up with the pneumatic rivet squeezer. Next, I gooped on a nice layer of resin/cotton mixture over the top of the hinge on the inside and down over the fiberglass. After the mixture set, the hinge seems extremely well supported and sturdy now. I'm really happy that I spent the extra time to go the resin/cotton route. I think the cowling will be much more durable over time.
The pictures show where I added a piece of painters tape over the top of the top coat of resin. This seemed like a good idea to get a nice smooth finish on the inside. In practice, though, it didn't work very well and I *wouldn't* recommend it. Just let the resin flow-out and smooth naturally and you'll have a perfectly good surface. *DO* added the tape on the outside of the cowling, though, as that worked out perfectly to assure that the rivet heads were completely encapsulated in resin.
