[Junglepilot]

This may not be clear but I'll try and make it such.

I'm doing the final cuts on the canopy and one side seems to have a slight more outward bulge or curve that the other. Driving me crazy. Maybe 1/8. When I drop a plum bob over the top and drape it down each side the plum bobs hit slightly different spot on the rail. The canopy is centered and all.

So question is: Is this normal, for the canopy to not be perfectly curved in it's circumference?

 

[SHIPCHIEF]

Can you flex this part of the canopy into position with finger pressure?
When you attach the canopy to the frame, you will be clamping it to rivet or bond it, depending on your choice. Soon you will be clamping the canopy in place.
I used black plastic spring clamps of different sizes I bought in the aerospace section of the local box store. I bonded my canopy on with SIKAFLEX, so I used short pieces of garden hose (slit on the side) for spacers. These I placed over the steel frame, then used the spring clamps to hold the canopy. I just kept adding spacers and clamps around the frame. Fitting and trimming, you will most likely get the canopy to lay down and have good optical clarity without distortion. If you can't get it at this point, riveting it or bonding it to the frame will just make it permanent.

 

[Junglepilot]

Thanks

Yeah I'm doing that. The point I'm at now is just finishing up the trimming on the sides and back so I can get good "clampage" all along the frame top rail and make sure we're where I want to be before the big cut.

Actually now that I am back in the shop in less directional lighting with it the distortion isn't noticeable as I clamp more and more along that rail. (Then again when I walk in a room and a picture is hanging 1/16 crooked I can see it).

I have a center line and keep measuring and everything is centered. So I'll just keep nibbling away. I have to assume the canopies are not all 100% perfectly curved as you read so much about the weird things people run into trimming these things. We know the frames aren't perfect as we twist those so much also.

I am also using SikaFlex.