Somebody on the internet gave me the idea of hiding the pins for the hinges that attach the two cowling halves together inside the cabin.

You do this with a couple of pieces of 1/8" brass tubing that I bought from Hobby Lobby. You will have to buy more hinge pin since Van's doesn't supply you enough to do it this way. You should have the hinges riveted to the cowling already too.

First put the bottom cowling half on with a short piece of hinge pin already in the hinges. Slide the pins back until they touch the firewall. Mark the spot and then remove the cowling half and drill the holes.

Next put the cowling back on and this tiem put the top on too. Insert the hinge pins through the hole in the firewall to hold the cowling together. Slide the brass tubing over the pin and butt it up against the firewall.

The tricky part is figuring out how to clamp the tubing to the side of the fuselage. A long piece of wood and a block work okay. Wedge the long piece down in the structure and pull it against the block and the tubing to hold the tubing against the side skin. I thought that I had a picture of this sorry. Once you figure out where you want the tubing and get it clamped, put some Quick JB Weld on it in a place where it will hold the tubings alignment through the firewall. This is the critical part. It can curve around inside the cabin but the tubing needs to be lined up level with the hinges for the first couple of inches at least.

Once the Quick JB Weld cures then figure out where you want the pin to pass through the fuselage bulkhead. Mark and drill that hole.

Then put the pin back in and bend the tubing around where you want it and use some Slow JB weld to hold the whole thing. You could probably use fiberglass epxoy too but JB Weld is pretty good stuff.

Once it is cured it should be pretty easy to push the hinges through the tubes and into the back of the hinges on the cowling

I haven't figured out how I want to secure the pins to the bulkhead yet but I'll try to remember to update this note when I get that done.