[acam37]

I'm about ready to bond my newly fabricated fiberglass canopy skirts to the frame and canopy on my fastback. I plan on Sikaflex for the entire job without any rivets or screws. I've seen where over time the rivets will work loose in the fiberglass.
Is this approach acceptable?
Also what is the best way to achieve a smooth transition between the canopy and skirt?

 

[WAM120RV]

Skirt.

I used sikaflex to bond on the screen, then put in rivets as a backup for the canopy. To get a good transition electrical insulation tape is good for protecting the canopy when smoothing the edge of the fiber glass. I used wet glass up to the edge of the tape and then sanded it down to the tape.

 

[Stewie]

Mask primer

I like working with sika since it's relatively easy to get nice edges. The trick is to mask the primer well with a good moisture-proof vinyl tape (electrical works fine) - this will be your finished edge, so make nice mask lines. Once your primer is dry, mask for Sika along the primer line, covering about 1/64" of the primer line under the masking - this will be your final, clean edge, and assuming you are using black primer/black sika, invisible. The sika sticks great to the primer but rubs off clean plexi pretty easily. Use this to your advantage. Hope that makes sense.

 

[acam37]

Yes, the canopy has already been completely Sikaflexed. I'm now working on the skirts. They are still in the rough stage and not yet trimmed and sanded to final shape.
I was looking at a -10 the other day and the fiberglass was feathered to the canopy so well that if you closed your eyes and run your hand across, you could not tell where the glass meets the windshield.
Is it better to trim the skirts, glue to the canopy, then feather? Or trim to shape and then feather the edges while off the plane and then glue it in place? I'm mostly worried about scratching the exposed canopy and not getting a clean line.

 

[Stewie]

I have the usual aluminum skirt so feathering was not an option. If using sikaflex, presumably you'll have some rubber tubing spacers on the canopy frame to control bond line thickness. There's no reason though you can't taper the bond line so that it is minimal at the edge where it meets the canopy. I have 1/8" bond thickness at the frame which tapers to 1/64" at the edge of the skirt. But you are working with FG so this may all me irrelevant. Minor scratches to plexi are easily removed with micromesh.

 

[AX-O]

I'm about ready to bond my newly fabricated fiberglass canopy skirts to the frame and canopy on my fastback. I plan on Sikaflex for the entire job without any rivets or screws. I've seen where over time the rivets will work loose in the fiberglass.
Is this approach acceptable?
Also what is the best way to achieve a smooth transition between the canopy and skirt?

-Drill 4 #40 placement holes (2 on each side of the aircraft). It should go through the skirt, canopy and canopy tube.

-Pop the skirt off.

-clean the edges on the skirt nice and straight (or as you like them).

-set/cleco the skirt back on the plane to see how it fits.

-tape all the edges on the canopy as close as possible to the skirt.

-remove skirt

-clean all surfaces and apply sikaflex.

-set skirt back on the plane and cleco in place.

-use a round object to shape the sikaflex excess.

-pull the tape off the canopy and let the sikaflex dry.

No need to feather the edges. Hope that helps. Your project looks nice. I hope I can finish mine before yours flies.

 

[acam37]

Fiberglass fabrication is hard

After an entire weekend of sanding, trimming and fine tuning the fit, I finally got down to sikaflexing the skirt to the frame. Right now it still looks pretty rough, but after I clean up the excess sika, I'll lay down some high-build primer and do some more sanding to get it as smooth as possible before it's ready for the top coat. I took Axels advice and cleco'd it in place while the sika is curing.

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[ka6dan]

So what are the specific sikaflex products I need to attach my slider skirt?

Thanks

 

[acam37]

So what are the specific sikaflex products I need to attach my slider skirt?

Sikaflex sealant 295
Primer 209
Cleaner/activator 205
This stuff is amazing. I bonded a test piece of scrap canopy and fiberglass and wound up breaking the canopy piece before the sika let go.