August 23, 2008 - Canopy Fairing

 The wings and empennage are ready for painting.  But there are still things I need to do on the fuselage before it is ready for painting.  The remaining task that is probably the most involved is fairing the canopy leading edge.  So I decided to start with it.

First thing to do was make little hold-down tabs out of aluminum strip.  Pretty easy to make. 

 
Initially I put in two retaining clips.  Later on I made two more.  I sanded off the black paint from the skin in front of the canopy. 
  
The instructions were pretty good in this area.  Plus I looked at Dan Checkoway's page.  I made a 4 inch radius semi-circle out of poster board per the instructions. 
  
Here's a good look at one of the clips riveted to the skin with a CS-4-4 pop-rivet.  I also applied black electrical tape about one inch up front the canopy edge.  Then I scuffed up the canopy and skin so that the epoxy will adhere well. 
 

I protected the front part of the canopy with plastic.  The canopy is covered up to the electrical tape barrier.  In this picture you can see all four clips. 

Then I mixed up a batch of epoxy and micro-balloons -- very thick mixture -- and applied to the area where the canopy meets the skin.  I let it dry overnight. 

 

There were some posts in Vans Air Force forums about the oil filler door "bulging" outward in flight.  I gathered the impression it's a good idea to strengthen the door so it won't bulge.  Initially I tried using some .032 angle but that didn't work for me because of the door curvature.  Fluting wouldn't work because the angle needed to curve in the wrong direction.

So I fashioned these two pieces of foam.  I sanded one side so they fit the door curvature nicely.  I'll glass them over to give them strength. 

 

The canopy fairing instructions call for the application of glass strips.  While I was waiting for the Epoxy-Micro to dry, I started cutting out the glass strips, starting at 1/2" and increasing each strip by 1/4".  The last strip was 2 1/4" wide.

I have the circular cutting knife -- can also be used to cut pizza in an emergency.  Before I had cut the fiberglass cloth on a plywood sheet worked OK but not great.  Just by chance, this time I used a hard surface wall-board as the cutting surface.  What a difference!  Using the circular knife alongside a wooden yardstick cut the fiberglass perfectly. 

 
All the strips are ready to go. 
 
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