Canopy Frame - how good is good enough?

[UnPossible]

Hey - working on everyone's favorite part of the project, the canopy and the frame (RV-7A Tip-up). As you can see in the pictures below, I am struggling a bit to get the canopy frame to match up with the fueslage and the roll bar.


1) The top of the canopy frame is ~0.1" below the roll bar. Is close enough to proceed, and if not any suggestions as how to fix this? (Order new parts?)



2) The sides of the canopy frame do not exactly follow the fuselage sides. Earlier, I attempted to bend them and ended up with kinked side rails and had to reorder the parts. I am reluctant to try and bend these after my earlier experiences. Again, is this close enough, and if not, how to I make it better?



3) Are there any builders assistance places / folks in the Northern Illinois area? This is the one spot in the build where I am ready to start throwing things. Ideally, I'd love for the canopy fairy to come by one evening and just build this stupid thing. Since that hasn't happened yet, I'd really like to find someone that really knows what they are doing here and would be willing to spend a long weekend with me banging this thing out... I am sure we could work out something as far as compensation for time spent.....


Thanks again,
Jason

[gasman]

Jason, #1 is ok. Move on.

#2 is not OK!!! The fitting starts with the weldment. Make it fit, and then make the side rails fit. Normally the skin of the side skirts will hang over the fuse skin. I have seen some that don't extend the skin of the sideskirts. But the canopy rails should match the fuse. Get some local help............ It's not that hard to get it to fit.... Just a few tricks.

At least you are under. You can always shim out to fit.

[robertahegy]

I agree with getting the weldment to fit first, then the side rails and rear bulkhead pieces. The side skirts on the 7 actually should line up to the side skins and not overlap them. They should be near butting edge to edge as should the glare shield skin. The 6 did overlap, but the 7 was designed differently.

Roberta

[PaulR]

Jason,
Since I'm on the last 10% and trying to get to the airport, let me assure you, fixing it now will be much better. I had some problems getting mine to fit just like I wanted it when I did my canopy frame too. Though my side frames weren't as far off as your's they were off and I thought it was "good enough".

Let me assure you, it wasn't and I have spent countless hours trying to fix what would have been a simple fix when I originally built it. Take your time and bend a little at a time. Like Roberta said, get the weldment as perfect as possible first.

Spending a couple hours now will save you ten times that later!!!

Good Luck.

[flion]

I agree with the earlier posts. My roll bar deliberately had more gap than that but I was using Sika. It looks fine for the standard attachment. To get the side rails on my -6A (and I did not overlap the skins) I started with the weldment and then used it to position the rails. With the rails positioned I could see the curve nowhere matched the longerons, so I used a shrinker/stretcher to work the rails. I probably spent an hour or two on each rail until they matched the curve of the longerons. You can probably borrow that tool but they're not that expensive; I wouldn't trust any other method on those thick parts. Hammering will just tend to twist the rails. It's worth taking the time to get a perfect fit as this will be very visible, overlapped or not.

[cjensen]

Where are you at in Northern IL Jason?

[UnPossible]

Originally Posted by cjensen

Where are you at in Northern IL Jason?

I live outside of Oregon, IL.... which is about 30 miles south of Rockford.
(I'm about 3 miles from C55 if that helps more)

[cjensen]

Not sure I can get up there quickly enough to help right away, but I will be up and down I-39 every weekend while commuting to Oshkosh starting in a few weeks.

I'd be happy to stop over from time to time!