Windshield fairing - argh!

[ChiefPilot]

Can anyone offer some advice on how to get the windshield fairing on a side-by-side slider to be symmetrical? How do folks normally do this - use a paper template, take measurements from a predefined station, etc.? I'm struggling to come up with something - help!

Thanks!

[ron sterba]

Hey brad. You may not have a square windscreen to canopy setup. I'm assuming you have the canopy/plexglass frame complete with side skirts and aft skirt too!.Once you have your top skin on lay your windscreen on top and pull it up to....and basically square to the canopy. At this point your looking at a layup of the fiberglass strip on the windscreen and then covering the canopy from side to side so as to provide a shield /and overhang to the canopy. I think its on drawing 43&41. It shows the rollbar and canoply in close contact with each other. Don't do the windscreen until you have done the slider canopy.

Ron

[lostpilot28]

I measured outboard of centerline at 4 and 8 inches on each side. Then I marked those spots and made sure the bottom of the plexi sat at the same point on both sides. Once it was lined up with tape, I pop riveted a few of the aluminum tabs (from the plans) to hold it in place until I fiberglassed it in place. Worked pretty well.

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Just take measurements off various rivets and rivet lines on both sides of the fwd fuselage skin. Pretty much all the rivets on that skin are symmetrical. It's a bit tedious, but that's part of the fun.

[OneCharlieKilo]

Can anyone offer some advice on how to get the windshield fairing on a side-by-side slider to be symmetrical? How do folks normally do this - use a paper template, take measurements from a predefined station, etc.? I'm struggling to come up with something - help!

Do you plan to paint your RV yourself?
Reason I ask is that I struggled with the windshield fairing too, eventually got something I thought was reasonable, and one of the first things my paint shop guy said when we were going over my plane, before we had a deal done, was something along the lines of; don't worry, most of the RV windshield fairings I see aren't any better than this, but I can fix it....
and he was right, he did a much better job than me in just a fraction of the time.

So if you're having the paint done professionally, I'd recommend making it flyable and letting a paint shop with proven track record pretty it up.
Mine's a tip-up, so maybe this isn't what you're looking for on slider, but offered for consideration.