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Canopy restoration

scsmith

Well Known Member
I just spent two afternoons rehabilitating the canopy on my old LS6 sailplane. The canopy is 28 years old and has been poorly cared for. It was so scratched up with fine scratches and swirl marks that it looked hazy, and some deep scratches too. If your well-loved RV has a canopy that is not looking as clear as it once did, you can fairly easily restore it to full beauty.

I bought the Scratch Off - Optica 4 Scratch Removal System from Chief Aircraft in Grants Pass.
I started out by wet block sanding the entire canopy with 1000 grit carborundum paper bonded to a 1/2" thick neoprene pad, about 2" x 3". Now if you don't think that is a terrifying idea, then yours are bigger than mine. I did do a small area first to see how the step-one polish would remove the 1000 grit sanding scratches, and it cleaned up fairly fast, so off I went.

Once I had the whole canopy sanded and I could see that the deep scratches were gone, I followed the directions for the polishing steps, except that I didn't turn the polishing pad in a drill motor, I just did it all by hand, moving the pad in two perpendicular directions, doing about 18" square area at at time. The step-1 polish fairly quickly removes the 1000 grit scratches, and assuming all the deeper scratches were sanded out, the results of just step 1 are surprisingly good. It looked so much better at that point that I could almost have just stopped there. But there were still a lot of very fine polishing scratches that show in the reflection of the sun. So I proceeded through the steps 2,3,4 as directed.

The results are nothing short of breathtaking. I don't see any optical distortion, and it is as clear as a brand new canopy.
 
My 6A slider canopy is used. The previous owner spilled a gallon of epoxy paint on it. I bought it for a song and sanded all the epoxy off. It could use some touch up now after 17 years but has worked fine.

You are right: it’s a tad frightening to attack your glass with sandpaper
 
Crazing not so much

Crazing goes deep, and you may get early stage crazing to polish out somewhat, however, once crazed..always crazed. In my experience, even when you think its well polished out, the first time its in the sun, you will still see it because of the depth. Its not advisable to sand down so much that the strength of the canopy is compromised.
 
I just spent two afternoons rehabilitating the canopy on my old LS6 sailplane.
........

I started out by wet block sanding the entire canopy with 1000 grit carborundum paper bonded to a 1/2" thick neoprene pad, about 2" x 3".

Are you saying you wet sanded it? If so what did you use for a liquid?

Thanks!
 
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