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Canopy fairing fiberglass

JDA_BTR

Well Known Member
Can I do the fuel tanks again? Fiberglass sanding is tough work! When is says don’t worry if the glass overlaps the forward edge the work needed to sand it away isn’t mentioned.

The front center is looking pretty good.

On the left side I attached a pic. Getting the overlap off on the front sacrificed some of piece A. There is also metal showing on the aft edge. You can’t see it but there is a bit of a swale depression between the two.

I was going to lay in another piece of glass cut to size to cover this metal and lay it over some small strips in the depression.

On the other side that little corner where the window meets the aft structure looks a lot better but a little bit of the tip of the metal at that corner shows. How critical is that? Should I keep glassing it until I get a edge of glass to the top of the metal? Or will the final epoxy and primer cure my worry?


 
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From the pics it looks great, don't overwork the problem, as long as it's reasonably smooth and the transition to the skin is also smooth go ahead and spray some primer on it, then you can easily see if there is more sanding or filling required. I used Superfill to smooth the deeper scratches and minor indentations and it worked great.

on the transition to the plexiglass make sure you (carefully) sand until the underlying tape is visible
 
Don't like fiberglass work

For my RV12 I bought a prefinished unit from Vikingaircraftengines.com. The cost was worth the saved time and mess.
 
If you want an invisible blend of the fiberglass to the fiberglass to the upper fwd skin once the airplane is painted you need to intentionally sand the entire perimeter so that it exposes the metal along the edge of the tape.
This is described in the video series.
This needs to be done at the aft ends also.
Once sanded, spray with some filler primer and do some final sanding, and the transition can be invisible.
 
Will do. To my eye it seems I'm at the edge of the tape on the canopy side but the pic makes it look like there is a little more than I think. I think I might use the magnification of the phone camera to inspect things.....
 
When I mix microballoons to fill what consistency is best? Is the peanut butter of the void filler right or something a little different?

I filled in the hollow swale on either side and laid a longer overlay on the left side back to the aft edge to tie in the thin forward edge. 60 and 80 grit sanding with a good faired transition from the flat side to the curved middle. Pulled the top tape all around and not going to sand further until the holes and such are filled. What I learned is that if I take too much I can just lay more down and fix it. The metal corner where the canopy dives behind the frame is impossible to keep glass on and have a good shape so I’m done trying for that.

Pics show a new top layer of tape to sacrifice when I lay the filler epoxy down. When that hardens I’ll feather the edge and then repeat. Then I should be ready to get the final shape.


 
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Resurrecting the old thread as I approach this process. Does anyone have recommendations for a filler primer that may be available locally rather than a specialty thing?
 
NAPA

I used a rattle can gray filler primer (part no. FP101) from NAPA. I was very pleased with it.

Doug
RV-7
Mounting the wings
 
Make sure the primer you choose is compatible with the paint you plan to use. I asked my painter for a primer recommendation. :rolleyes:
 
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