My method
Now that I said my bit about the safety of gluing the canopy, I thought I would offer my method. This method is for the RV-8 canopy, but I would think that other RV's would apply.
I glued my canopy a little differently than most. I basically followed Mickey's website, but with some modifications to the procedure (thanks for the excellent website Mickey, I'm not crazy enough to install an auto engine, but I did glue my canopy
).
The insructions for Sika say that the 295 needs to be applied between 30 minutes and 2 hours of applying the primer (gee thanks for the generous window). Mickey and others have done it by applying small blobs to tack the canopy on the frame, then come back after it sets and finish the job with smooth pretty fillets. I figured that if the 295 was applied within the 2 hours, it would have better adhesion than after 24 hours. Here is what I did (actually, this is what I would have done, taking out the extra steps of fixing my mistakes
):
1) I used the doubled up garden hose and spring clamps (per Mickey) to space the canopy during cutting/fitup.
2) I taped (with blue masking tape) off the canopy and frame to where I wanted the glue to go. I decided to glue less of the canopy than Mickey. I ended up with 3/4-7/8" from the edge. This is mostly preference. The main thing is that I didn't want it to obstruct my vision around the roll bar and I wanted the skirts to cover the glue joint. When taping the frame, tape it off at the point where the fillet would taper off if you were to use a squegee to smooth out the 295.
3) Take the canopy off the frame and scuff both the frame and canopy. Clean using the Sika cleaner. Buy some 3/16" thick adhesive backed rubber sheet, shore 40 (I bought mine from McMaster) and cut into rougly 3/8" X 3/8" squares. Stick them on the frame everywhere that you want a spring clamp. When the clamps are applied, the 3/16" spacer will compress to 1/8".
4) Apply another layer of tape covering slightly more than the first layer of tape. This is so that after the first application of 295, you will be able to pull the tape off and be left with a little room to apply a cosmetic coat after the first application sets.
5) Paint the primer on the canopy and frame. Get the canopy on the frame immediately after it dries and apply the clamps. You may have to reposition some of the rubber spacers if they moved while placing the canopy.
6) Working somewhat quickely, squirt the 295 into the joint from both top and bottom. Smooth it out with a squegee and make sure to get the fillet on the second layer of tape or slightly within the tape line. Work in sections at a time as the 295 sets up rather quickly (I found this out the hard way). Do not be concerned about making it look pretty since you have to get through the whole canopy within 2 hours of applying the primer. Just get it within your tape joint, smooth it out roughly, and move on to the next section. Peel off the top layer of tape before the 295 cures. Leave the rubber spacers in the joint, they will become a permanent part of the plane. The sika instructions say that you can do this.
7) Now you are left with the final tape joint to apply a cosmetic coat. After 24 hours, you can come back and do sections at a time while taking your time. Apply primer in the small area that the top tape layer was covering and apply 295 again, but this time taking your time to smooth it out to a pleasing finish. Peel the tape off as you go.
This method gets 95% of the glue in the joint within the specified 2 hours and still allows you to make a pretty fillet. There may be better ideas out there, this is just how I did it. Regardless of how you do it, it is messy and requires many pairs of surgical gloves and rags, but if you can get through sealing your tanks, you can get through this.