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  #21  
Old 03-14-2009, 03:45 PM
Kahuna's Avatar
Kahuna Kahuna is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Gold Hill, NC25
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Yes,
You can slice with through it with a blade/boxcutter/exacto
Its sands off with sandpaper.
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  #22  
Old 03-15-2009, 05:10 PM
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AntiGravity AntiGravity is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Hamilton, New Zealand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FMF15E View Post
I have 300 hrs on my RV-8, all temps, rain and even light snow. Glued with Sika and spacers - then fill in the gaps and form a smooth fillet. I drilled my skirt and used 1/8 inch washers as spacers when glueing. Then pushed out the washers and placed Sika into the gap and into the drilled hole.
Hi Bruce, I'm not a million miles away (I hope) from sika'ing my canopy. I'm doing a fastback so will need to make custom skirts for it. I don't suppose you have some pictures of your skirts in place with the washers and after washer removal? Do your skirts lay flush or do they sit proud of the canopy now? This is something I don't recall seeing addressed in other posts about sika and I've been wondering how to tackle the skirt fitting.

PS Sorry to hijack, but I'm sure the original poster would also benefit from an answer to this question too

Cheers.
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  #23  
Old 03-17-2009, 09:10 AM
John Brunke John Brunke is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: St. Charles, IL
Posts: 8
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Jeff,

Thanks, but you're not "hijacking" to me. I've picked up a lot of good information so far.
Ordered the Sikaflex a couple of days ago and will get my canopy frame painted today so that I can get this all glued up.

John Brunke
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  #24  
Old 03-17-2009, 10:36 AM
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Noah Noah is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Rhode Island
Posts: 937
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Sika'd my canopy 2 weeks ago. Used a 1/8" spacer on the sides and moved the frame inboard similar to the Swiss guys at flyvans.com so that a .125" bond thickness was achieved along the sides. Adjusted the position of the bow frame so that it sits lower than the rollbar so a minimum of 0.2" of bond was guaranteed all around the bow. I used small rubber spacers to lift the front of the canopy and hold it 0.2" above the glareshield while curing.

Also Sika'd the side skirts to the canopy, and riveted the sideskirts to the spacer. No holes in the canopy at all.

I cured the sika at 50 degrees F, which is right about at the middle of the operating / storage temperature range. Thus positive or negative temperature excursions will result in a minimum of stress in the joint from CTE mismatch. Took a long time to allow cure without disturbing the canopy. Sika's data sheet shows a curve of cure time vs. temperature and relative humidity.
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  #25  
Old 03-17-2009, 11:00 AM
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N941WR N941WR is offline
 
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The next one for me will be glued!

My canopy cracked during a trip "Up North" to visit Mom last year. It was 15 above when went to leave and colder at 11,500'. When I landed I found a crack.
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  #26  
Old 03-17-2009, 12:41 PM
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pierre smith pierre smith is offline
 
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Location: Louisville, Ga
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Default How do you space the windshield...

...and canopy to achieve a level relationship with each other? With screws, we added washers here and there as needed, sometimes to the windshield and then to the canopy. We're considering Sika on a -7A going together in my hangar.

Thanks,
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  #27  
Old 03-17-2009, 01:21 PM
flyvans.com flyvans.com is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
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hi pierre,

we had a slight mismatch when trimming between the front and the back (tipup).

so we simply cut the front cut to be aligned with the center of the forward flange on the rollover bar, the rear window with the center of the rear flange of the rollover bar. this left a gap of about 1/2" or a little more.

sika has two very nice properties:
- it doesn't stick anywhere where there's no primer, such as electrical tape etc... also if sikaflex gets onto the canopy by itself, don't worry, it won't leave a mark nor stick to it, can be easily rubbed off with the thumb.
- it's very very easy to sand & shape with a 80-120 grit sandpaper once hardened.

so we first glued both the front and the rear into position including the skirts, fillets etc...
then we masked the front canopy rear edge with electrical tape (rear edge and inside the overlap over the rollover bar)
then painted the gap on the rollover bar and the edge of the rear canopy with the sika primer and filled the gap with sikaflex, letting enough goo there to be able to sand it smooth and flush with the rear and front canopy outline later.
during sanding protecting the canopy with duct tape of course.

result is excellent and provides a very smooth transition between the halves!

rgds, bernie
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  #28  
Old 03-17-2009, 01:25 PM
scsmith scsmith is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Ashland, OR
Posts: 2,574
Default A way to space the skirt for gluing

Hi,

I glued my canopy using the rubber hose spacer method. Then, when time to glue on the skirt, I didn't want a huge gap like 1/8", but I did want to assure a uniform gap and no chance of pinching the glue gap down to zero with clamps. So, what I did was get some 50 lb-test fishing line, about 0.035 diameter IIRC, and I tacked it to the canopy with super glue, about centered in the 1" zone where the skirt bond would be. Then I put on a bead of sikaflex, clamped the skirt in place with some specially made wooden C-clamps, and relied on the embedded nylon line to force a uniform glue bond thickness. Worked great.

Some may worry about the 0.035 bond to the skirt being too thin, but the thermal expansion isn't so different between the plexi and the fiberglass skirt as it is to the metal frame, So I'm comfortable with it. No way is that stuff ever letting go.
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  #29  
Old 03-17-2009, 01:45 PM
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Bob Brown Bob Brown is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Somewhere in a motorhome
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The side skirts on mine have a slightly thinner layer of Sika than called for, but they're drilled and riveted to the side of the steel canopy frame (but not through the canopy itself). I put an exagerated inward bend on the piece that supports the plexi on the inside, so it does have the proper bead thickness. Anyway, once that had set, I installed the rear skirt.
I put hose washers on the trailing edge of the canopy. Then, I and my wife (through a few iterations), did the final trimming (fore/aft, not the sides or ends) of the aft canopy skirt. Then once that final trimming of the aft canopy skirt was done, we put down the bead of Sika (on the properly primered surfaces, of course) and, then using duct tape (and an extra set of helping hands) set the aft skirt onto the turtledeck and the side skirts to achieve the best fit. Once the best fit was achieved (so the aft canopy skirt was laying down on the turtledeck well, duct taped in place), I drilled the aft skirts to the side skirts, clecoed it, and came back the next day to final trim the sides of the aft canopy skirts to match the side skirts. So my aft skirt is drilled and riveted onto the side skirts, but not through the plexi. Four years later, the install looks, feels the same. I do think the only downside is a slight increase in weight...if you try to tear off the plexi from the aluminum strips I kept as samples...something will break or tear, but the joint is Mongo tough. Sorry to throw in a little Mel Brooks there, but it's Good Stuff. The trick is, you don't have a lot of working time. Do a lot of prefitting to make sure that at the last minute, you don't have to trim something. Get an extra set of hands, use duct tape liberally, follow the directions and it'll work well.
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  #30  
Old 03-17-2009, 01:51 PM
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rv8ch rv8ch is online now
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: LSGY
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Default clever trick

Quote:
Originally Posted by scsmith View Post
... So, what I did was get some 50 lb-test fishing line, about 0.035 diameter IIRC, and I tacked it to the canopy with super glue...
Very clever trick! I'll be stealing it when I do my skirts.
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