canopy Ugh

 Canopy; once I get thru this, hopefully I will be done learning as the FAA calls it.

So my side skirts are done and I am ready to bond onto the frame.
But I noticed the skirts wanted to pull in when cleco'd to the frame. So I added some epoxy/flox/cab-o-sil mixture to the spots where the canopy sticks out pass the frame. This allows the canopy skirt to sit nice all the way to the fuselage. In the picture one can see where the canopy was stick out past the canopy frame.

Following the lead of JCarne and Wirejock on these forums (thanks guys). I plane to sikaflex the canopy skirt to the canopy frame. I think I might use the Vans rivets to hold it all together. I am not using the inner skirt C-759 and hardware; instead using a big bead of sikaflex. It has held up for 2 years on the shelf, so it is good to go. The sikaflex on the outer is really just for sealing the canopy bubble to the side skirt.

I painted the outside skirt and brace (C-660 and C791) white to match the canopy frame. Right now everything is pilot drilled 3/32"and cleco'd.
I plan to drill the C791 to the C660 this weekend, then take apart, debur and dimple, countersink for rivets per plans, and re assembly with Van's rivets.

any comments welcomed. I see Wirejock just responded on another thread suggesting to just sikaflex everything together with minimal rivets; gotta think about that.


3/13/2022 EDIT: I would recommend not drilling the side skirt holes into the canopy frame while the frame is off the fuselage. I would recommend it is best to do this skirt to frame match hole drilling when the frame is on the fuselage. The reason is the skirt is curved. When on the bench, the position of this curve will be close to the fuselage curve, but wont exactly match. If one does this match hole drilling while the canopy frame is on the fuselage, then the curve will exactly match the fuselage curve. I found this out today when I drilled the inner skirt; it is really hard to adjust the outer skirt bend later when trying to drill the inner skirt; the metal is just too stiff.

Also, decided to Proseal instead of sikaflex the outer skirt to the canopy frame, see later posting

3/14/22 ok back to sikaflex. Not sure of the compatibility of proseal to canopy; we know sikaflex is good.