How is your canopy affixed to the frame?

Hey gents,

I purchased a 4 that needs some restoration. It was built in the 80’s and flown for over 1k hrs. It was taken apart for restoration and never got it back together. Anywho…

1) I was looking at the canopy and it looks like the builder used screws to affix the canopy to the frame and used acorn nuts on the interior. Has anyone seen this before? If so, have any pics?
2) anyone have a build log/pics of how they constructed the front skirt with fiberglass?

Thanks in advance,
D

What I did

Congratulations on acquiring a -4! You will love it! I built mine, and the canopy/skirt is by far the most challenging part of the build. I attached my bubble pretty much "per plans" using the pop rivets with some minor enhancements. I used a Proseal bond between the tubular frame and the bubble, left to cure with cleco's only, then installed the pop rivets and side skirt skins with sealant a couple days later. Its totally sealed, and somewhat vibration insulated with oversize holes for the rivets. Since yours was done with through bolts and nuts, you might want to keep it that way, no harm in doing so. For the front fairing, I started making a metal one, but ended up laying up a fiberglass one that had 100% gap free fit. It was very easy. Simply apply thin mylar or vinyl tape the the canopy and bubble and forward skin, then lay-up a 3-4 layer glass fairing using bias cut cloth with oversize flanges. Let it cure real well, pull it off (wont stick to tape) and trim it to fit. make it look like its a metal piece and rivet it on. Once painted, only you will know.

Hey Bill, thanks for this, very much appreciated!

D

I built a -7A and used the screws and acorn nuts.
Just make sure the hols in the plexi are a little over size and the screws are not tightened to tight.

Thanks Andoman.

Did you use AN or stainless screws?

Thanks,
D

I went the Sikaflex route, 500 hours, no issues.

Yeah, if I was doing it from scratch, I would have gone sitka but this is already done and I dont want to fix anything that's not broken.

AN

dmat said:

Thanks Andoman.

Did you use AN or stainless screws?

Thanks,
D

Click to expand...

I used AN from Spruce. But that was before Amazon. I bet you can get a 100 pack of stainless pretty cheap nowadays.