Toobuilder
Well Known Member
There are a few "flat wrap" -8's out there, but in case I'm the only one who converted a flying airplane from the bubble to flat, here's a few pictures of the process.
This hole caused by a few inconsiderate birds got the process rolling.
Since this airplane had two prior windshields, I welded up the roll bar to seal the holes.
I used a straight edge to see where the line drawn from the canopy bubble would fall on the boot cowl. On this canopy, a straight line tangent to the canopy radius falls on the boot cowl 24 inches from the front of the roll bar. Rough cardboard template cut to fit
Since the "E-AB" category is all about education and learning new things, I decided I'd learn how to make a heat formed windshield. I made a buck using the roll bar as a loose pattern.
Buck was skinned with thin ply, finished with filler and covered with felt.
Since I couldn't find an oven big enough, I made my own out of plywood. I upped the thickness of the plexi to .250"
Rough cut the windscreen using the cardboard template. There is a lot of trimming and fitting after this step!
This hole caused by a few inconsiderate birds got the process rolling.
Since this airplane had two prior windshields, I welded up the roll bar to seal the holes.
I used a straight edge to see where the line drawn from the canopy bubble would fall on the boot cowl. On this canopy, a straight line tangent to the canopy radius falls on the boot cowl 24 inches from the front of the roll bar. Rough cardboard template cut to fit
Since the "E-AB" category is all about education and learning new things, I decided I'd learn how to make a heat formed windshield. I made a buck using the roll bar as a loose pattern.
Buck was skinned with thin ply, finished with filler and covered with felt.
Since I couldn't find an oven big enough, I made my own out of plywood. I upped the thickness of the plexi to .250"
Rough cut the windscreen using the cardboard template. There is a lot of trimming and fitting after this step!