Hello all,
I have been approached about donating a spare -5 cowl I have to someone who is looking to make tooling, etc to produce new cowls. Other than the nose gun panel what else does the T-6/ SNJ community need? I'm kind of concerned about the need for cowls, many people have patched up cowls but I wonder if many owners will actually pony up the money for new ones? kinda hesitant to let my cowl get drilled apart if this project doesn't go anywhere.
Would like to hear your thoughts...

Also prints exist for the cowling.
The rear skins aren't really just a flat piece rolled as it isn't a concentric circle from the nose to the very rear. i.e. the rear skin on top runs uphill and on the sides actually curves back so the trailing edge is slightly narrower.
When you free form to repair a cowl you end up with the trailing edge of the L/H side hitting the inside of the carb air scoop like a certain cowl piece does that is sitting on the hangar floor.
I've had NOS cowl pieces that didn't fit as well which would've needed a ratcheting strap to get the 3 latch bolts to be secured.

Only way to do this is build fixtures and tooling off of a decent original cowl set. Know it fits right, check against prints and pay attn to details.
I fit to the engine and other cowls all in place to locate and drill holes when repairing a T-6 cowl. Doesn't take much to cause alignment issues with the fit and have a repaired area crack soon after getting fixed.