Cabin top

[jwilbur]

Just fitted my cabin top. on and off and on and off and on and off, etc. I thought I had a great fit but when I put the tailcone top skin on I have a gap between the skin and the lip of the cabin top. Wondering if this is normal. Or do I need to sand down the lower aft door frame so the cabin top will slide back a little further (and build up the front lower door frames to fill the gap I'll be creating).

Already sent a question to Van's but thought I'd get some thoughts from the VAF crowd.

 

[Auburntsts]

Joe,
If you've got a good fit everywhere else and there's adequate material for the aft edge distance where the top tailcone skin overlaps that lip, then I'd leave it be and just fill that gap later. I didn't but some folks glass over that seam anyway.

 

[mgregory176]

Cabin Top

Joe, Check to make sure the rear flange of the cabin top isn't resting on the former. It wobbles a bit and if it gets trapped can keep the whole thing from sitting properly. I had to go back and trim my rear flange to exactly 3/4 " all the way across or I would have a similar result.

 

[NovaBandit]

I agree with the posts above. Make sure you don't have any interference, and you have enough "meat" for the pop rivets... but beyond that, mine looked the exact same way. I ended up smoothing over that transition with micro.

 

[jwilbur]

Thanks

This is what I thought, too. The gap is consistent at 1/8 all the way around so I don't think the cabin top is skewed left/right. And there's no interference. I cut a pretty good 3/4 trim all the way 'round so there's a corresponding 1/8 gap between the top and the bulkhead. This leaves more than 1/4" from the edge of the rivet holes to the edge of the cabin top. Seems like plenty of "meat" to me.

Thanks for the quick replies. Any other thoughts of course are welcome.

-Joe

 

[rleffler]

Just more of the same....

I just filled the gap and put a layer of glass over the seams. Then add more micro to make transition shaped correctly and smooth.