[RV8RIVETER]

Hello all

I drilled my canopy skirts to the frame today and had a couple of questions.
I have read all about the difficulties encountered here, so I decided to lay them up with the best possible fit and drill them there. I plan on putting a layer of carbon fiber tape over the pop rivets anyway, so my strategy is to make cuts and reshape with the tape or a thin ply of e-glass as neccessary.

My first question concerns the skirt/fuselage gap. Around a majority of the skirt I have a 1/8th gap and the other places it opens up as large as 3/16's. And a small area at the right front corner it is 1/4" (obviously too big). What gap are most poeple happy with?

Does the idea of cut and re-ply sound like a good/workable solution?

Did any of you bother with putting a nice finish on the inside or underside of the skirt and was it worth it?

Thanks for the help,

 

[Ironflight]

Hello all

I drilled my canopy skirts to the frame today and had a couple of questions.
I have read all about the difficulties encountered here, so I decided to lay them up with the best possible fit and drill them there. I plan on putting a layer of carbon fiber tape over the pop rivets anyway, so my strategy is to make cuts and reshape with the tape or a thin ply of e-glass as neccessary.

My first question concerns the skirt/fuselage gap. Around a majority of the skirt I have a 1/8th gap and the other places it opens up as large as 3/16's. And a small area at the right front corner it is 1/4" (obviously too big). What gap are most poeple happy with?

Does the idea of cut and re-ply sound like a good/workable solution?

Did any of you bother with putting a nice finish on the inside or underside of the skirt and was it worth it?

Thanks for the help,

Wade - glad to hear you're making progress!

I've only done one skirt, so take this as a single data point. I'm assuming you have the newer, two-piece skirt - if not, you might as well cut it in the middle now! When I first drilled it to the frame/canopy, it fit nice and tight to the fuselage along the bottom (straight) edges, but I had a gap of probably 1/8" on the curved portions. I had read all about people cutting slits and re-glassing, and I was really dreading this. I stared at it for several days, and then for some reason, I took the clecos out of one side at the back and slid the skirt UP the canopy just a small amount - the fit on the fuselage instantly was perfect! I re-drilled the holes for the better fit, glassed in the old ones, and I had essentially NO gap at any point. AS I recall, I had a thin spacer in front of the rear block, holding the canopy ever so slightly open - this meant that when it closed all the way, it fit REALLY tight.

Do yourself a favor and try this re-fit before you start slitting and glassing! Basically, once the front half is fitting nice, think about pulling the rear up the glass, and that should suck it in to the fuse.

Once I had re-drilled both sides, I glass them together in the back, and eventually added some filler underneath to make the gap by the rail as small as possible. I did not spend a great deal of time making the inside of the skirt smooth, as I am going to cover that with fabric (eventually). I did glue felt along the edge of the skirt all the way from front to back, where it touches the skin, to keep it from rattling, and make a nice seal.

Paul

 

[RV8RIVETER]

Best fit

Paul

Thanks, it is nice to finally be working again.

I do have the two piece skirts.

Tried I don't how many iterations of up/down, front up/back down, ect until I had what seemed the best fit at canopy and frame. Of course it looked really good to the eye and fingers, before I actually measured it. I guess I shouldn't have measured, it only seems to get me trouble.

So, if I take yo right, you had no measurable gap between the skirt and fuselage at all?

 

[Ironflight]

Paul

Thanks, it is nice to finally be working again.

I do have the two piece skirts.

Tried I don't how many iterations of up/down, front up/back down, ect until I had what seemed the best fit at canopy and frame. Of course it looked really good to the eye and fingers, before I actually measured it. I guess I shouldn't have measured, it only seems to get me trouble.

So, if I take yo right, you had no measurable gap between the skirt and fuselage at all?

Yes, I had a nice tight fit (on the second try). I think part of the trick is to block the frame "slightly" open - I remember that the instructions, or someone, told me to do this, but can't rememebr for sure how - and fit the skirts tight in that position.

If I couldn't get it tight, my main concern woudl be getting the gap even - it would look better that way, and you can use a felt seal to take up 1/16th or so...

If I had the airplane, I'd fly out and have a look for you....

Paul

 

[N282RV]

I am doing this exact thing right now, and I too have noticed that if you move things up and down it does make a diffrence in the fit. However I noticed that it is possible to move my fairings up too far and in the aft corner of the canopy rail near the rear seat back bulkhead I had a small gap right in the corner, what I mean is not a gap from the fuselage but a place where the fairing was not covering the hole. I cut my fairings as Vans says, 1/4 inch out of their scribe line.
I have been seeing people talk of carbon fiber, is this stuff easy to get? where? And is it just cooler to say you used it or is there a reason not to use regular fiberglass?

N282RV

 

[Ironflight]

I am doing this exact thing right now, and I too have noticed that if you move things up and down it does make a diffrence in the fit. However I noticed that it is possible to move my fairings up too far and in the aft corner of the canopy rail near the rear seat back bulkhead I had a small gap right in the corner, what I mean is not a gap from the fuselage but a place where the fairing was not covering the hole. I cut my fairings as Vans says, 1/4 inch out of their scribe line.
I have been seeing people talk of carbon fiber, is this stuff easy to get? where? And is it just cooler to say you used it or is there a reason not to use regular fiberglass?

N282RV

I had a similar problem on my left side - I hadn't even cut it to the scribe line, and it left that little gap. I just extended it with regular glass cloth and resin, and after finishing, you'd never knew the problem existed.

(Back when I was doing all that about a year ago, I ordered some Graphite cloth from ACS to do the windshield frame. It was back-ordered, so I found a local friend who had some, and used a strip from his scrap bin. I got an email from ACS just a couple of months ago saying the graphite cloth was still on back-order, and did I still want it if they ever got it!? I took my name off the list...)

Paul

 

[RV8RIVETER]

No worries

Paul, thank you for the generous thought, but I am glad your plane is in paint, finally.

It is not something I am really worried about. I have to glass the back halves together anyway, so a bit of extra work is no big deal. Besides I am on a "9 yr" pace anyway. I will only have to make a few dashed cuts to allow the botom strip of skirt to "bend over" to contact the fuselage. Overall the fit is pretty good. Here are two pictures.



The right front corner is the worst offender.



N282RV: I will be using carbon because it is light and stiff. I mainly want the extra rigidity in the windscreen fairing and plenum I will be making. It is not really needed on the skirt, but thought I might as well get used to using it now.

 

[dcleco]

a good alternative to carbon is kevlar sanwiched between fiberglass. very light and stiff also has better vibration dampining qualities and easy to work with, need to buy kevlar shears to cut the cloth but other than that it works like glass.