Focus Cowl Needed

[Earl Haury]

Larry

If you want to put a bit of work into it, the cowl can be repaired without gaining much weight. Start by cleaning it throughly with degreaser and soap/water. Install some reinforcement "ribbons" using carbon roving (Dave Brown or Aerospace Composites) with a flexible CA to the interior to stiffen it to your liking. 

Fill any serious holes (needle valve size and up) by applying masking tape to the exterior, then cover the hole from the inside using a 3 to 5 oz. carbon (or glass) cloth patch. Saturate with a good grade of laminating resin (epoxy - West Systems) and blot most of the epoxy off with a roll of toilet tissue (blot 'til clean tissue is dry). When cured, sand the interior with 80 grit dry to remove sharp edges.

Sand the paint from the areas that are cracked, around repaired holes, etc. using 220 wet/dry. Fill imperfections that are more than just cracks with  a good two part filler (I prefer PPG K-36 Prima with talc added to make a paste.) Glue any cracks with the new flexible thin CA. Sand filler / CA flush.

Apply strips of 0.6 oz. glass cloth over the cracks using finishing resin, again blot off excess with the tissue. Wet sand (320), feathering the edges of the glass to the surrounding areas, prime, and paint.

I recently repaired a large carbon canopy that had been mangled in a crash using these techniques and gained 20 grams from new weight.

Earl 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Larry N Lisa 
  To: discussion at nsrca.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 3:04 PM
  Subject: Re: Focus Cowl Needed


  I'll have to try it, but there is allot of material that the original owner cut out of it. Gets very wobbly with the 140L.

  I flew the plane all season with the cowl beat up...Will probably hold out, but wanted to clean it up with a new paint job...

  I might try filling in the fine cracks with thin CA. I also have some areas that I might use some body filler to fill in some holes...

  Nice job on your plane...

  Larry
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Scott Pavlock 
    To: discussion at nsrca.org 
    Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 2:39 PM
    Subject: Re: Focus Cowl Needed


      Larry:

          What we did with our new cowl is sand the inside of it just a little and brush the glass shavings into the crack, then we filled it with thin CA. Works great!
      _______________________________________________________________
      Scott Pavlock
      586-295-2611

      groups.msn.com/scottspatternpage

      photos.yahoo.com/f3aflyer7
        ----- Original Message ----- 
        From: Larry N Lisa 
        To: discussion at nsrca.org 
        Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 2:06 PM
        Subject: Re: Focus Cowl Needed


        Older Version...
          ----- Original Message ----- 
          From: Rock, Charles 
          To: discussion at nsrca.org 
          Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 12:38 PM
          Subject: RE: Focus Cowl Needed


          Which Focus II or the older one
            -----Original Message-----
            From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On Behalf Of Larry N Lisa
            Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 12:02 PM
            To: NSRCA
            Subject: Focus Cowl Needed


            Anyone have a new Focus Cowl they want to part with?

            Or, any recommendations on how to repair the spider web cracks to prevent a new paint job from cracking all over.

            Larry Diamond
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