bent canopy lip

[Jake14]

after almost 2 years without a hitch, after some cold weather, when I opened the tip-up canopy yesterday I heard the dreaded 'pop' of the canopy frame leading edge catching on the fuselage top skin. After straightening out the bent lip as best I could, the stretched metal is wavy and uneven and has a small crack as well, see pic.

The top can be smoothed with filler, but the lower surface has the rubber seal attached and should be fairly straight. I've been reading about shrinking aluminum sheet by heating and cooling, but not sure it would be good for the material.
Just wondering if I could solicit some expert advice on how best to proceed.

Thanks in advance

[bkervaski]

Jake,

It's likely the forward seal that caused this. Quickbuild?

See this - http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...d.php?t=167134

I had a PDO expert fix mine.

[Jake14]

yep, QB. Thanks for the link, very informative...

Just wondering how the shop fixed the lip after the bending stretched the metal. Seems like some kind of metal shrinking technique would be needed to make everything straight again.....

[bkervaski]

Jonathan McCormick at Evoke Aviation/Plane Schemers is the wizard behind the fix, he's won competitions for his work. Unfortunately, I don't think he does these kinds of fixes as normal work, it just so happened that they had just painted my plane.

He used some very specific looking tiny hammers and magically just shaped it back into position. This happened to me twice. The first time I thought it was the front of the canopy so I took about 1/16th off that already recessed area. I figured out after the second time it was the seal. So mine was repaired twice, looking at it you would never know.

But I hadn't touched it or tried a repair, he was clear that if I tried to fix it or worked the area myself he may not be able to shape it back.

That mark to the left, is it the skin cracked?