L

lewy

Well Known Member
Hello, The plans call for you to skim the fiberglass around the canopy after sanding it smooth. What is the best applicator to apply the epoxy to the sanded fiberglass? Don Lewis
 
Just a little "unsolicited" advice on finishing the canopy. Obviously, the outside is where you put your efforts to make it look good. Take some time and finish the inside also. As you raise the canopy you will be able to see any imperfections in the fiber glass work, forever. A little "bondo" fills in any voids and imperfeftions caused in the layup process. After you get it smooth and presentable paint it to match your scheme. I went with black to match the panel color.
 
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Canopy work

Thanks, I used a black dye on the cloth layup and it turned out pretty good and now am trying to get rid of the low spots in the sanding process.
 
I used black dye in the resin and the results were not as nice as I wanted. So I thought about then masking it and spray-painting the backside. But that was going to be clumsy and messy. Now, on my instrument panel I will be applying silver-colored carbon fiber-look vinyl from this source: http://www.xpinvinyls.com/ So I took some pieces of that and applied it to the underside of the canopy. Now it looks really good when you raise the canopy. This stuff is high quality.
 
What do I use to do coutour shaping

This is a related question. I just finished the rough fabrication necessary to fit my skirt to the canopy. It involved slicing the skirt in several places in the back and then filling gaps with epoxy thickened with fiberglass flox. Then, I laid up one layer of 9 oz. cloth on the outside and two layers on the inside to reinforce everything. Now, the skirt fits well, but there are some waves on the surface from all of the fabrication and layups.

I am at the point where I want to "skim coat" the skirt to smooth everything out, but I am not certain what product to use. On my old 1963 Triumph Spitfire (in high school) the trick product was bondo, but that hardly seems airworthy. I am using the West epoxy process, which seems to be working well for this newbie. Do I thicken it with the same fiberglass flox (but that seems too course) or the microbaloons I purchased from Aircraft Spruce.

Thanks in advance for your advice.
 
Neither. Use West System's 410 Microlight Fairing Filler.

It's a low-density, smooth filler that's easy to sand.

Dave
 
Flox fiber for toughness, microballoons for bulk, cabosil for a thixotropic mix.....the only fillers you need to build entire composite airplanes.

Fairing and filling is done with dry micro....glass microballoons and epoxy mixed to about the consistency of peanut butter. Dry micro is not hard to sand. Unlike 410, plain glass micro has no temperature limitations beyond the tg limits of the base epoxy.

Apply the same finish techniques to the inside as the outside.

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Steve Ashby said:
This is a related question. I just finished the rough fabrication necessary to fit my skirt to the canopy. It involved slicing the skirt in several places in the back and then filling gaps with epoxy thickened with fiberglass flox. Then, I laid up one layer of 9 oz. cloth on the outside and two layers on the inside to reinforce everything. Now, the skirt fits well, but there are some waves on the surface from all of the fabrication and layups.

I am at the point where I want to "skim coat" the skirt to smooth everything out, but I am not certain what product to use. On my old 1963 Triumph Spitfire (in high school) the trick product was bondo, but that hardly seems airworthy. I am using the West epoxy process, which seems to be working well for this newbie. Do I thicken it with the same fiberglass flox (but that seems too course) or the microbaloons I purchased from Aircraft Spruce.

Thanks in advance for your advice.
Click to expand...

A trick some are using is about 25% 410 to 75% micro balloons. Seems to be easier to spread and sand.

Dan, is your stuff really that beautiful or is it just photo tricks........?!
 
Dan, I love it when you talk dirty

Dan,
Thanks for the advice, but what in Van's name is a thixotropic mix?
BTW, you have forgotten more about composites than I will ever know.
 
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