Canopy cracking

[Dogger]

I have been flying my RV-7 that I built for over five years now. Over the past two years I've noticed my fiberglass canopy fairing has began to crack and delaminate at the sheet metal transition near the hinge location. Since the winter weather is conducive for fixing things, I decided to completely redo my fairing and use aeropoxy this time. I began removing all the fiberglass and paint. After removing the fiberglass with sandpaper, I've discovered that I have many many cracks on the canopy where the delamination was occurring near the front hinge. The fiberglass fairing was originally made using the west system epoxy. I was very careful to round all the edges of the plexiglass during the original build. I've counted at least 43 cracks of various lengths where the canopy makes contact with the skin.

Do I have any solutions available besides a new bubble? I was quite disheartened to see this problem

Thanks for any suggestions

 

[N890GF]

how is your canopy attached at the front there? is it an adhesive under that lip? or was the canopy only restrained by the fiberglass fairing?

 

[dgarrelt63303]

how is your canopy attached at the front there? is it an adhesive under that lip? or was the canopy only restrained by the fiberglass fairing?

Looks like there is a clip in the center between the two canopy hinge points. But I don't see any other clips.

Wonder if the cracking we see on the canopy is also where the fairing was coming loose, allowing that area to flex back and forth around the other secured areas of the fairing, resulting in the cracks

 

[N890GF]

Looks like there is a clip in the center between the two canopy hinge points. But I don't see any other clips.

Wonder if the cracking we see on the canopy is also where the fairing was coming loose, allowing that area to flex back and forth around the other secured areas of the fairing, resulting in the cracks

oh good catch - I didnt notice the hole in the images. Yeah it seems like the forward part was flexing and possibly impact/pressing against the forward skin. Is the rest of the canopy attached to the frame by screws?

If this was me, I would (if possible) remove the canopy and stop-drill all the cracks, and then add some sikaflex to the forward part, where the canopy meets the canopy frame skin, and then re attach the canopy and then rebuild the fiberglass fairing over the canopy

 

[lr172]

Looks like that part of the canopy is makig contact with flexing skinthat is causing the cracks. Stop drill all the cracks and find a way to take some material off the bottom edge in that atea.