Started working on the inner lip for the oil door. With the standard Vans cowling, the inner lip joggle is already present and making the oil door is pretty straightforward. As seen in the previous articles, with the Sam James Cowl, you have to determine the oil door position yourself and cutout the panel from the top cowling. A second piece of stock epoxy is delivered with the cowling that will serve as the door itself. In previous times, SJ didn't deliver such a stock part and you had to cut very carefully to re-use the cut out piece as oil door. Fortunately, they now deliver the cowl with an extra piece of epoxy that was made on the same mold so the curve fits perfectly.

Next step after having the door cut was to lay up some layers of epoxy on the inside of the top cowling so that the door itself can lay onto it.
I wrapped the inside of the door with clear packing tape, scuffed the inside of the cowl with 60grit sandpaper for adhesion and taped the door in place.

I cut 4 layers of epoxy cloth that will be used for the lay up. I'm planning on 1 inch overlap on the top cowling and 1 inch extending inside. The 1 inch inside will be cut back when cured to have a 1/2 inch lip.

To make sure the offset on the inside it good, I duct taped the door from the outside to make sure that the inner material won't push the door outwards. The door has to end up flush with the top cowl when it lays on top of the lip.

After one night of curing, I removed the oil door and found this rough result.

The edges are quite nice. There's some minor filling up work due to air gaps in the corners but overall I am satisfied with the outcome.