Finish Kit

On the -4 the firewall is straight so the cowl hinge naturally sits at right angles to it. For this reason the later VANS designs have a slope in the upper firewall so it is angled at right angles to the top of the cowl. I was lucky in that I was able to borrow a shrinker and gently modify the hinge so that it slopes down . I have never seen metal respond to the shrinker so easily. If you can borrow a shrinker, I strongly recommend you do since it was remarkably easy to make the direction of the hinge match the shape of the cowl.
This picture shows nothing in particular. The upper cowl has been attached with clecos as have the cowl cheek extensions. The problem I have is the build manual says to trim the upper cowl to the scribe line. There is no trace of a line to trim to on my cowl!








A second problem I have is this. The photograph is taken from as exactly I can, in front of the aircraft. The VS tip, roll bar, and spinner are all lining up, but look at the air scoop. It is significantly offset to the left from the pilots viewpoint. Is this normal?

Postscript - another -4 builder reminded me the carb is set considerably off centre. It is much more noticeable on the -4 than the -9 I built.