Finishing the sika on the canopy

I've glued the canopy to the frame and left it for about 36 hours in a warmed garage.

I've now removed the clamps and the hose spacers.

I need to run a cosmetic finishing bead around the top of the frame and cosmetically fill the gaps where the spacers were. I assume I use the Aktivator 205 and primer 209D again on the 'rough' bits of sika when i apply the final cosmetic bead.

But do I apply primer in the holes where the spacers were? Wouldn't that then glue the canopy to frame at those points and the spacers are in part to provide an expansion joint?

I have read over the various posts of those who have done this and I remain unclear about this.

Can I have your wisdom please?

My understanding is the primer is active for 24 hours. I removed spacers after 12 hours (it begins setting up after 1 hour and was quite solid at 12), filled the gaps and applied my edge fillet and pulled masking at that point utilizing the original primer application. I don’t believe any expansion gaps are needed. 950 flying hours and 6 years - so far, so good.

KeithB said:

My understanding is the primer is active for 24 hours. I removed spacers after 12 hours (it begins setting up after 1 hour and was quite solid at 12), filled the gaps and applied my edge fillet and pulled masking at that point utilizing the original primer application. I don’t believe any expansion gaps are needed. 950 flying hours and 6 years - so far, so good.

Click to expand...

+1.

I did the same. The Sika cured fine. Coming up on 6 yrs and 660hrs and all OK.

Sika

Sika will not stick without Primer.
Sika will stick to Sika but a reapplication of Aktivator is recommended
I would remove the spacers and fill all the voids.

The initial layer of Sikaflex is more than sufficient to hold the canopy in place, so any additional layer is mostly cosmetic. I wouldn't worry too much about reapplication of the primer, unless you plan on widening the Sikaflex on to unprimed areas.

I did my cosmetic second layer within the initial 24 hours of priming and it has been fine for over 10 years.