Boot cowl bottom fastners

[brink]

I started a fuselage recover and fabricated a new boot cowl. Some parts are missing, the four parts,I call them drum fastners, no call out in any Aeronca maintenance manual that I have. I did find an old drawing of the four parts,and built them from the drawing, out of steel plate with four welded steel spacers,they are about 1/2 inch in length I also got 2 AN -4-43 bolts to draw the bottom cowl togeather , but I know they attach to,the bottom of the boot cowl with 6 rivets,on each plate. where the boot cowl over laps on the center line bottom with about 1 1/2 inch overlap, my question is where on the bottom of the boot cowl do,these four plates attach to best seal the firewall and fabric hoop that the boot cowl rubs against? I feel the spacer is close to,the center line, for it is attached to one side of the metal plate and not in the middle, am I correct? A fellow flyer

[Paul Agaliotis]

It should be pretty centered when tightened. Once the cowl is installed only the lower 1/3rd will close, a little more with the slotted plates up the sides.
The parts overlap with the stiffener bend being the upper most panel. I use a 3/16 fastener for the closure. It gives you a little more room to close it up.
Paul

[brink]

Okay thanks Paul, I just could not recall how all that worked, my drawing had no indication concerning the installation, and if the spacers were inside or out side when attached to the boot cowl on the out side. A fellow flyer

[brink]

Well I got to work and cut my boot cowl 2 piece made it a little longer where it wraps around the bottom, will over lap about 3 inches right side overlaps the left, flush riveted the two right drum fasteners, looks like a long AN-3 bolt will be my best bet, I’ve looked at 4 Champs and they are all different and all of them have boot cowl repairs. I feel this overlap will flex a bit.

[Paul Agaliotis]

Brink,
The metal side that is overlapped has a 90 degree bend in it to prevent distortion. Also I use -3 hardware in the 1/4" bracket so there is a little "self alignment" space.
Paul