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Hey Ryan, can't see any Pictures. would be helpful to help...
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I'd be careful not to get too small of a gap between the front top skin and the tipup. The two tend to want to butt edges when opened. Plus you need to allow for paint.
Roberta |
Welcome to the world of the 7 and 9 canopy. The skin fits like **** to the frame. If you look at some build sites you'll see guys have to use spacers between the skin and frame in that gap area. I used washers. I then filled in that gap with epoxy so it looks a little better. I cracked the frame trying to get it to fit to my fuse sides better and had to have it welded. Be careful bending it where the holes are drilled and countersunk. I think I countersunk mine a little too much which probably helped it to crack.
In the spot that you are I had my canopy aligned beautifully to the front skin and was very happy. Then something happened and when the skin and frame were riveted it was way off. Now I am working on the fiberglass fairing and will have to do some fiberglass work to get the skins to match up halfway decent. The canopy is the worst fitting part of the build and you just have to do the best you can and deal with what you end up with. I gave up trying to make it fit perfectly and hopefully will be happy with the final outcome. The next thing that happened to me was my canopy cracked. I stop drilled and filled the crack and now hoping it doesn't get worse. Can't fathom starting over building a whole new one. You could say I really hate the canopy portion of the build!!!! |
it is what it is...
The canopy was the most frustrating part of the build. I played around with the frame, shims, tweaking things endlessly and it never got a whole lot better in the fitment areas you describe. Best advice, build on... and live with it.
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Thanks everyone. Looks like the magic formula was just patience and elbow grease. Managed to get a fit I'm mostly happy with so drilled the center plate to commit to it. Building on. Too bad it looks like I'm going to be on to the canopy plexiglass around the time it gets the coldest here. Bad timing.
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Canopy Cutting and Trimming
If you dont have the capability to heat your workspace to 75-80 degrees I would recommend putting the plexiglass work on hold until you can. The pucker factor is really high when cutting, fitting and drilling the canopy and there is a huge amount of other work that needs to be done in firewall forward, wiring, instrument panel and fiberglass for fairings wheel pants etc. putting the canopy work on hold for 6 months will not slow the overall progress - trust me.
KT |
Thanks for the advice. I am strongly considering "finding other things to do" during the winter. It gets nice and hot here in the summer--I might be able to cut the canopy with a butter knife in July.
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It can be fitted all the way around.
Ryan, I have a number of posts on my canopy frame and front skin fitting. Looking at your pictures, you have a long way to go, which means lots of opportunities to avoid some common issues.
A post is like instructions of a heart transplant or full IFR training in 50 word or less. Keeping that in mind, you are having common issues. The good news though, there is a path to make stages adjustments freezing the frame in steps and making it fit nicely. The fit of the front edge to the skin is another matter. I could not live with mine, and fixed the remaining stagger and gaps. Stagger being non planar butting of the canopy and forward skins. I shimmed the front skin as the final adjustment to those two structures. That necessitated replacement of the front skin with a custom drilled piece. So - I have an extra factory skin left over if you need one. Shipping is more than the skin -ugh. When you are ready and have studied the situation, give me a call and we can discuss the picture, large and small. Check all my canopy posts and they begin to give a picture. |
My canopy fitting took months, since each little change induces an
effect somewhere else (usually in an unexpected place). Just keep at it. I too ended up with a custom made front skin which helped a lot. Gary Kohler RV-7A flying |
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