Damazio family's RV-10 project: Oil door re-do and nose gear fairings started

Our previous attempt at making the oil door resulted in one that was not flush - I guess it just cured at a slightly wrong shape - so we started over and did it again:

Cowl with slightly raised oil door

New oil door, trimmed and clecoed down

We made a small ramp for the hinge to sit straight without bending:

Fiberglass strips to make oil door hinge ramp

Oil door hinge ramp cured in place

Removing the oil door after hinge ramp cured

Oil door hinge ramp after sanding

Oil door attached to hinge, with ramp

I attached the stainless steel reinforcements to the flange, so the latches wouldn't eat away the fiberglass over time:

Oil door flange reinforcements riveted in place

We then installed the core and applied a couple layers of fiber to the whole door, and this time we let it cure in place, clecoed down to retain the shape (and even retain the right shape around the reinforcements) - which worked:

Oil door core layup curing in place

Oil door after core layup curing

Oil door sitting in place after layup cured

For the latches, I drilled and clecoed the latches in just the right position to catch it but to still release when pressed:

Oil door latches clecoed in place

Because of the additional thickness of the reinforcements, they had to be raised inwards slightly, so I made some spacers from 0.032" aluminum:

Oil door latch spacers in place

Oil door latches raised by spacers (before trimming the spacers down)

The button holes required some care - the lever moves at an angle (the button rotates around the latch attachment point), so the final hole location is not exactly underneath where it sits before drilling the hole:

Oil door with button holes finalized

We then started working on the nose gear fairings that come with the Showplanes cowl, and drilled holes to secure them to the cowl, bottom skin, and each other: