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Crack in RV-8 canopy

Marvin

Active Member
Another good reason to fly the airplane. Because of personal problems I haven't been flying much. The bird was just sitting in the hangar and a crack developed in the canopy. I stopped drilled it but it will have to be replaced.

Question. Where is the best price on a canopy and is there a improved way io install the canopy? I read the post on this site and it calls drilling a quarter inch hole an place a grommet in the hole. This is different but will it make a difference?

Dick
 
Todd's canopies may be cheaper, are said to be thicker and have more tint options than Vans.

Sikaflex is a pretty common way to install these without drilling holes in them. If you can handle a caulk gun, you can handle the sika. Will have to modify your skirt if you change canopies or mounting methods though....and that can be extensive glass work. I have a Todds canopy, sikaflexed on....and Vans skirt fit like high heels on a horse.

Sorry to hear of your loss.
 
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Marvin,
You might be able to repair rather than replace the canopy. Look up canopy repair on the soaridaho.com site. I took a bad scratch out of mine with sandpaper and micro mesh. Never though it would work, but it did and is invisible now. A crack would be harder than a scratch to repair but it might work with the filler stuff they describe.
 
Cracked canopy

Mine cracked on the coldest night of the year this winter also. It was about 75% of the way back and I caught it when it was 4" long. Stop drilled with a #40 bit and used Weldon 4 and 16 to repair. It worked great and smoothed out the canopy with wet sandpaper #400 and 600 grit then used the scratch off (?) product to final smooth the canopy both inside and out. It is a Todd's canopy that was screwed on. Holes were drilled large and smoothed out. In my research I read of both sika and drilled canopies cracking, sika is not a guarantee to not crack. My take on this is anyone's who's canopy hasn't cracked will tell you they did it well; or just hasn't cracked yet.

The only downside of repairing the crack is it looks like a scar, however I didn't have to redo the entire canopy and skirt let alone the custom painting. Also if you do replace the sliding canopy you should consider replacing the windscreen. The angle of the windscreen when not replaced at the same time always looks sketchy when not done - you can see these occasionally (just sayin...).

Good luck!
 
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