My simple fiberglass nose cowl repair.

I bought this 1800mm extra 260 from a friend.

It had a 20cc glow engine in it, but I wanted a 30cc gasser. So to fit the new muffler I had to cut a hole much further forward in the fiberglass cowl.

I used a drill bit in my dremel to cut it out.

Unfortunately the hole was now much to large.

So I taped the part of the hole that I didn't need to make sure that the cowl could be taken off and put back on without the hole.

I put some CA in the cracks to stop them from spreading. Then I marked out where the tape edges were.

I took some aluminium-net for reinforcing the repair. This is normally used as reinforcements when repairing rust damages in car bodies.

A close up of the very thin and fine net.

I cut out two pieces of it to fit the holes. One to make the hole where the engine top sticks out a little smaller and one to fit the large hole where the old muffler used to be.

I glued them with epoxy from the inside after cleaning the cowl with alcohol.

I put some plastic filler on the larger hole. Some of it poured straight through so I had to scrape it off from the inside. I waited until it was thick but not hard and then I mixed a second batch and put it on top. The almost hardened layer held it in place. I made it as smooth and thin as possible. I chose to not put any filler on the net in the front hole, this way more air can cool the engine.

This is what I used, you can buy it here in Sweden but it is the stuff used to fix dents in car bodies. Many different variants of this would work, what's important is that it is elastic.

The important part is that is has the right shape, not that it is perfectly smooth. But the smoother it is the less sanding you have to do later.

I used gloves, and a newspaper to cover the table, because it is very hard to remove.

I used an electric sander with 80 grit sandpaper first to get the shape, and then 180 grit to make it smooth.

Starting to look pretty nice.

Since the filler is quite heavy I sanded it almost as thin as the rest of the cowl, to save weight.

Wear a mask or do this outdoors since the dust is very unpleasant to breath in.

I used some regular acrylic white spray paint. But I sprayed on a piece of plastic and then applied it with a brush to half of the net.

I made this line with a brush on free hand without masking.

This is regular yellow acrylic hobby paint.

I mixed it with the white to get the right tone. I used a plastic bottle cut in half to mix in.

I painted the yellow part of the net also on free hand with a very small brush.

I put masking tape on and cut it with a hobbyknife so that is was in line with yellow part of the cowl. (sorry, the picture was taken after the first layer of yellow was applied)