By Jim Wilson, VAA 17495, EAA 29605
Reprinted from ANTIQUE AIRWAYS,
the newsletter of the Carolinas Virginia Antique Airplane Foundation, Inc. (Vintage Chapter 3)
I was running out of stuff to do, so a local “friend” convinced me to make up and install an all new engine cowling on his Luscombe. “I already have a Univair nose bowl, top and bottom hydroformed parts…couple of days we can knock it out”…so said this ‘friend” as he sprinted out the door to take my Cub home so I would have hangar space for the Luscombe. I spent my allotted 3 days just getting the first steps thought out.
Interestingly, the Univair parts were significantly thinner than what came off…looking at any well used Luscombe cowl indicates you might as well start by putting reinforcements just about everywhere. Also, the Luscombe grills were about a 1/4 inch all around larger than the holes in the new bowl. Step one was to make a form block and resize these holes. The whole thing was not for the faint hearted….i.e. measure eight times, cut/drill once. The photos show the high points of the process.
