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Need to replace cracked canopy!!! CA

WingnutWick

Well Known Member
Hello all,

I am looking for a shop or person on the west coast, preferably within one leg from central CA that can replace a canopy on an RV-8. Flying in negative temps the other day I heard two large bangs which needless to say startled me. It took me a while to realize what it was until I spotted two cracks on the aft side of the canopy, one of them spanning all the way to the mid section of the canopy! I have seen the Frankenstein repairs on other canopies but with a crack this size, I just rather replace it.

I am hoping to find someone who will do a good job so this won't happen again. Sounds like using RC fuel tubing or Sikaflex methods work well but I am open to other suggestions, comments, insights.

The previous owner had a similar issue and apparently had insurance fix it! I may look into that depending the cost.

Thank you all!
 

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That really is a bummer! What sort of temps? It is always cold up here.

It looks like both cracks start at screw holes? On second photo, there appear to be small cracks or crazing near the edge of the outer red trim piece??

I hope you get it fixed soon.

Cheers,

Phil
 
Oh man that really sucks! I feel for you. My -8 got 2 cracks that look very similar to yours. I hate the idea of rib stitching the cracks, and I didn’t want to spend the time (yet) replacing the canopy. So I actually found a pretty good fix, with an epoxy resin. You can still see the cracks, which sucks, but they are solid and I don’t have a Frankenstein fix. If you’re interested let me know and I can type up what I did and what products I used.
 
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