Canopy Seal Advice

[ravenstar]

Compared to other issues, this is trivial, but does anyone have any wisdom to offer around installing the aft canopy seal on an RV-12iS? I'm not particularly happy with how mine is looking. First, the seal was packaged wound in the opposite direction it needs to curve when installed on the canopy. This is causing some small creases in the areas where the canopy is most curved which leaves gaps between the seal and roll bar. It's also causing the seal to curl inward on the lower portion on both sides which leaves a tiny gap between the rollbar and the seal. The gaps aren't huge, but are clearly visible when the seal is backlit with a bright light in a dim room. I've tried warming the seal with a hair dryer before installing it to get the original bend out, and I've tried adjusting the retaining clips fore and aft and even supporting the seal by hand, but the gaps remain. I'm beginning to think this seal is something that looks better on paper than in reality. Are these familiar problems and does anyone have some helpful tips?

 

[David Grady]

Compared to other issues, this is trivial, but does anyone have any wisdom to offer around installing the aft canopy seal on an RV-12iS? I'm not particularly happy with how mine is looking. First, the seal was packaged wound in the opposite direction it needs to curve when installed on the canopy. This is causing some small creases in the areas where the canopy is most curved which leaves gaps between the seal and roll bar. It's also causing the seal to curl inward on the lower portion on both sides which leaves a tiny gap between the rollbar and the seal. The gaps aren't huge, but are clearly visible when the seal is backlit with a bright light in a dim room. I've tried warming the seal with a hair dryer before installing it to get the original bend out, and I've tried adjusting the retaining clips fore and aft and even supporting the seal by hand, but the gaps remain. I'm beginning to think this seal is something that looks better on paper than in reality. Are these familiar problems and does anyone have some helpful tips?

Ravenstar -

I experienced the same issue. It’s kind of odd that the rear canopy seal was wrapped for shipping in the reverse of the required curvature.

I was able to make it work by spending some very careful quality time with the heat gun. First, be sure to take it VERY slowly you don’t want to fry your seal - do not overheat!

Do this in two steps: 1) First goal is to only straighten out the seal. This will take multiple heat / cool cycles. Initially use bare hands to verify you’re not overheating the seal, once you’re confident of the distance/time required to avoid overheating, then you can go with some light leather gloves.
2) Same process as above but now your goal is to add the correct directional curve to the seal. The curvature doesn’t have to be an exact match for the seal retainer, but enough to eliminate the kinks from the opposite curvature.

Compared to other issues, this is trivial, but does anyone have any wisdom to offer around installing the aft canopy seal on an RV-12iS? I'm not particularly happy with how mine is looking. First, the seal was packaged wound in the opposite direction it needs to curve when installed on the canopy. This is causing some small creases in the areas where the canopy is most curved which leaves gaps between the seal and roll bar. It's also causing the seal to curl inward on the lower portion on both sides which leaves a tiny gap between the rollbar and the seal. The gaps aren't huge, but are clearly visible when the seal is backlit with a bright light in a dim room. I've tried warming the seal with a hair dryer before installing it to get the original bend out, and I've tried adjusting the retaining clips fore and aft and even supporting the seal by hand, but the gaps remain. I'm beginning to think this seal is something that looks better on paper than in reality. Are these familiar problems and does anyone have some helpful tips?

 

[ravenstar]

Thanks for the encouragement. I tried the hairdryer because I was afraid of overheating the seal, but it didn't seem to accomplish anything. I spent some quality time with one of the strips and a heat gun last night and made some progress at least getting the seal to curve in the right direction. There are still small gaps particularly on the lower edge, but this weekend I expect to have enough time to patiently continue working with it.

One thing I'm taking away from this project is that it's never the things that you expect that give you a hard time.