Lindy
6/28/2008
Well, today was supposed to be Sikaflex day on the canopy. I ran over to Rob's house to get his leftover cleaner and primer last night so I could start today. When we looked at the primer can, it was expired by almost a year. I decided to take a look at it, and if the properties were still good, I'd do a test piece. Today when I opened the can...no go. It's solid as a rock in there. So, at this point I had a decision to make. Either go inside, order a can of primer, wait a week (maybe less), then go to work...Or, I could forgo the plan to attach the canopy with Sika altogether, and get a great day in on the canopy, moving forward. I decided that since I had already compromised by using a combo of screws and Sika, that I would go screws all the way. Rob, if you read this, no big deal at all man! I'm really happy with today's decision!
So, I started out by marking and drilling the holes the rest of the way around the canopy frame. There were only another 12 or so holes to drill, so it took no time at all. The gap that I built in for the Sika along the top, will be filled with washers and longer #6 screws, and a filler of some sort to seal the gap between screws.
I was a bit confused at this point because the instructions say to drill the holes to 1/8, then the drawings say to drill the screw holes in the skirt to #27. Am I supposed to drill the canopy and frame holes to #27 as well? I made a couple calls, and shot a couple emails, but nothing came back right away. I checked to see if by chance a #6 screw would go in to the 1/8 hole, and there's no way that will happen without cracking the plexi. So, I had my own answer, and drilled them out to #27. No issues with this.
Before I removed the canopy to deburr the inside holes (did the outside one's already), I marked a line on the canopy skin so I could mask it off to paint the "dashboard". The red arrow points to that. I also masked off the area along the front of the canopy that will be glass'd in place later (blue arrow, 1" up from the edge).
Then I removed the canopy to deburr the inside holes, and the frame holes.
Next, I masked off the "dashboard" area for painting.
I also masked the canopy on the inside to paint the area that would show the fiberglass from the inside and the area over the roll bar. My friend Jack has always said he wished he had painted the inside of his windshield on his slider where the fiberglass layer is...it's a bit unsightly, and in a really visible area.
Here are the pieces after painting.
I painted them in the backyard, not on the airplane...
So with paint to dry, I decided to pack things up for the day. There were some thunderstorms on the radar heading this way, and with Brit on her way home, I had to find a home for the canopy, and get the car in...
Whatever works.
Oh, while I was working today, the mail-lady walked up to the garage to hand me a package containing my MGL AHRS (SP-4), Magnetometer (SP-2) units and wiring harness's for the Enigma EFIS. I bought these from a VAF member that is an MGL distributor. These were his units for his RV-9A, but he is quite a ways out from needing them so he offered them to me with custom harness's already done for less than just the SP-2 and SP-4 would cost.
Since I need them anyway, it was one of those "can't pass this up" deals.
4.0 hours