RV10 Canopy-to-Fuselage Finishing

[rkbrown819]

What are most builders doing to finish the intersection of the canopy to the fuselage? Just micro balloons, or a few layers of glass too? Not sure if it's worth doing anything in this area and just leaving it to the paint shop, or if it's better to at least start a process. Any experience and advice would be appreciated.

[Kyle Boatright]

Originally Posted by rkbrown819

What are most builders doing to finish the intersection of the canopy to the fuselage? Just micro balloons, or a few layers of glass too? Not sure if it's worth doing anything in this area and just leaving it to the paint shop, or if it's better to at least start a process. Any experience and advice would be appreciated.

Opinion: There are two "good" ways to do it.

1) Leave an obvious seam, like chapter 5 in the plans shows for creating a nice clean seam between the empennage tips and the aluminum surfaces.

2) Glass over the seams.

If you just fill the seams with micro, they will crack pretty quickly.

Having used approach #2 on my project, I think I'd use approach #1 next time. Less work, less weight, no fear of cracking, ever.

[rkbrown819]

Thanks Kyle. I am still deciding which way to go. Interestingly, nearly all the finished 10's that I have seen have the seem covered - probably glassed-over as per your #2.

[leok]

The more work you do to prepare the surface for paint, the less the paint job will cost. After all, the paint shop will charge typically $50/hr or more for prep work.

Most RV-10s have the seam blended from what I have seen

[BrettShaffer]

Could you post a photo of the area you're referring to? I'm no where near it in the build but curious.

[Kyle Boatright]

Here's a picture of the left side of the airplane. There is a joint where the cabin top mounts to the fuselage. Fiberglass to aluminum. This one is glassed and blended to the aluminum. If I hadn't glassed, filled, and sanded, you'd see a very distinct line at the top of the aluminum canoe where the fuse top and canoe join. Cleanly finished and painted, it would look a lot like a joint between aluminum skins.

[BrettShaffer]

Originally Posted by Kyle Boatright

Here's a picture of the left side of the airplane. There is a joint where the cabin top mounts to the fuselage. Fiberglass to aluminum. This one is glassed and blended to the aluminum. If I hadn't glassed, filled, and sanded, you'd see a very distinct line at the top of the aluminum canoe where the fuse top and canoe join. Cleanly finished and painted, it would look a lot like a joint between aluminum skins.

Got it, thanks!

[lr172]

I had the old green top and the rounded edge in this area was littered with voids and holes from the original layup. It looked like only a few, but after I went at it with a dental pick, there were A LOT. I chose to fill that area on the plane instead of dealing with the cleanup necessary to make it look decent in the std installation. I just used bondo in this area with no glass reinforcement. ONly 100 hours so far, but expect no cracking, as the area is very well suppoted and should experience no flexing or movement. Unlike epoxy, polyester fillers have a bit of flex to them and therefore worn't develop cracks easily.

Larry