How do you recover from a canopy cut too short?

[dsmithlib]

When marking my RV7 tipup, I forgot to clamp down the 725 side rails. The rails were sitting up about 1/4" higher than they should have been(in addition to the 1/4" the rails are up for the seals). The result is that I ended up marking and cutting the canopy sides about 1/4" shorter than I should have.

I am coming up about 1/8 - 3/16" short along the side rails where the canopy attaches. Therefore, I have little or no clearance if I proceed to attach with the #6 screws. I am worried that the lack of edge clearance will lead to cracks. You really cannot move those screws higher or they will go beyond the skin edge.

I might consider gluing but, it seems to require lifting the entire canopy another 1/8" further reducing the attach area overlap.

I was thinking about using #4 screws along the side rails. Any advice on that?

I have been pulling down pretty tight to convince myself it is not so bad, are there any other clearances (above the roll bar?) or adjustments I need to consider to determine the final damage done?

I was pretty disappointed when I discovered this. My father always said: "measure twice-cut once" Of course, I did measure several times-just forgot to clamp down the side rail.

Any insights or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dave

[Rivethead]

Do you have a picture you could post, that would help a lot.

[frankh]

Extending the side raels up a bit?

For a different reason but I made my outside skirt cover about 1/4" higher than stock..In other words it does not line up with the top edge of the rear skin behind the roll bar...I thought it looked terrible, but no one ever notices it..Not even me..

Now I'm thinking that maybe you could also add an extension flange on the inside that is rivetted to the existing inner rail..The rivets would be between the screws.

That way you could position the screws so the edge distance is correct on the plexi..But don't worry about it on the inner flange.

It will look the same as mine...I.e just fine when you stop looking at it...

I could probably find a pic of mine if your not convinced.

Frank

[RatMan]

Originally Posted by frankh

Extending the side raels up a bit?

For a different reason but I made my outside skirt cover about 1/4" higher than stock..In other words it does not line up with the top edge of the rear skin behind the roll bar...I thought it looked terrible, but no one ever notices it..Not even me..

Now I'm thinking that maybe you could also add an extension flange on the inside that is rivetted to the existing inner rail..The rivets would be between the screws.

That way you could position the screws so the edge distance is correct on the plexi..But don't worry about it on the inner flange.

It will look the same as mine...I.e just fine when you stop looking at it...

I could probably find a pic of mine if your not convinced.

Frank

What Frank said. You are not the first I'm sure.

If you can't raise the bridge, lower the river!

[rv6rick]

My hangar mate did the same thing....he was left with just about ZERO edge distance on most of his holes. I told him to buy a new canopy. When he called Todd's Canopies....Todd told him to just glue a strip of plexi to the lower edges with Sikaflex. He even sent him the strips. I haven't seen the repair but it might be worth looking into.