Another day of fitting the cowl. As you probably noticed by now, I'm kind of obsessed on this cowl/spinner alignment before starting to make the first actual cut in the rear.

The transition looks good on the top. However I doubt how this has to be. I read about builders mentioning engine sag and having to take this into account. If the engine would sag a bit, that would lower the spinner in relation to the cowl. I'm really puzzled about this and whether I should place the spinner any higher than it is now. As a therapy, I went to the flight club where I fly now and had a look at the cowling of those 1970's cessna 152's. 

I also read that you should use a ratchet strap to pull the cowl in near the firewall. Doing so, I did redrille some of the side holes as the sides moved a little higher. Don't put too much stress on the cowl or it will change shape as well.

used some sheet to protect the cowl at the top

In the end I started drawing arrows next to the holes that were the good ones...  I think I'm over-doing this but better be more precise now than feeling sorry later on a 5K $ cowling.

Here's the other side. The two short black lines (below the piece of duct tape) represent the overlap.

I convinced myself this is what the final position will have to be. Drew the lines on from a reference line 2inch of the firewall forward line. Measured the 2 inch back on the cowl and connected the dots. This will be the cut line. As a backup, I used a thick sharpie pen to trace the edge of the sides of the firewall.

And did the same on the bottom.

I also made some horizontal lines as visual reference to see the cowl is at the spot it was before. At this point it was all still about leaving some visual clues so that the cowl could be placed back to the same location as where it was during the final fitting, once it had been removed.

At this point I'm ready for cutting. This will be the next work session