Has anybody Sikaflex'd a RV-6 Slider?
 

I'm beginning to consider how to tackle my canopy fit and I quite like the idea of using Sikaflex as opposed to riveting.

I've done a bit of a search on old threads and I can find loads of stuff for other models - but nothing on the "Slider" '6

Has this been done before ?. Good Idea ? (or not ?) can anyone point me at more info for the '6 ?.

I glued my 7 slider. I can't see how they would be significantly different. I would glue again too, no drilling for me.

I plan to glue mine also. The canopy parts are the same as the -7, so there is no reason you can't do it on the -6.

I did it on -6A slider, and I'm extremely pleased with it. The only hole I drilled was for the canopy latch - everything else got Sika'd. I even Sika'd the composite rear skirts to the canopy. Very happy with how it all turned out.

Virtual Hanger post

For those of you that removed the powdercoating before glueing, how did you get the powdercoat off? I would like to leave it on the lower side rails where the fairings attach, but remove it from the bows where the plexi is attached.

Thanks,

coarse sand paper
 

I just used coarse sand paper to rough it up then applied sika. So far so good....

I just roughed it up also for the sika, but I did remove a lot of the powder from other parts. I found the best method for me was to rough up the powder coat, then apply a chemical paint stripper, then use a wire brush on a bench grinder or angle grinder. Worked better than blasting for me.

I used a chemical stripper + wire brush to take all the powder coating off the canopy bow and roll bar, then primed & painted it flat black. I left a strip of bare metal for the sika metal primer.

Food For thought
 

A few days ago I had a nasty surprise when a 20inch crack suddenly appeared right over my head in my slider after a cold weather flight. I am going to try to repair the crack with adhesive, but if that fix fails a replacement canopy will need to be fabricated. How does one remove the plexi when glued onto the frame?

Heat gun and thin scraper. It's a two person job, hold the frame down reasonably firmly and don't be in too much of a hurry. Probably easier if you break away the bulk of the acrylic before starting with the heat.

Clive Whittfield
Auckland
New Zealand