Forward Canopy fairing

[Rick RV-4]

How have you guys been attaching the fiberglass fairing on the very front of the canopy? I'm assuming you make the fairing using a release agent, trim it to a good size, and then rivet it on? If you do rivet the fairing on, do you rivet it to the frame/bubble, or just to the front aluminum skin (C-403). Rivets about every two inches or so?

The other option is to just bond it to the canopy surface and aluminum frame, but this seems like it might result in a "permanent" mess.

And for the bonus question of the day . . . I still have yet to actually drill and rivet the bubble to the frame. It fits really well except for about a 5-6" span at the back of each side. I can have it make good contact again at the very end (back) of the frame, but there's just that small area on each side where I may have to leave a rivet or two out (to prevent really forcing the canopy to contact the frame). Is this a big deal? I'm guessing that by having some rivets at the very back curve and a very good fit around the rest of the frame that this wouldn't be a very big deal.

Any thoughts?

By the way, I went with a tinted Todd's Canopy and I'm very impressed so far. The optical clarity is outstanding, and all I had to do was some trimming on the front, and it fill real well! I think I saved about $100+ or so even when you throw in shipping.

As always, thanks in advance . . .

 

[fixnflyguy]

Canopy fairing

Rick,
I fabricated my forward fairing by applying mylar tape over the canopy and the aluminum skin and layed up the glass.After cure it easily pops off the taped area,then trim to size. I attached it to the metal skin only with soft rivets, but used pro-seal under the whole thig essentially bonding it to the canopy and sealing it tightly.Proseal is paintable and wont hurt the plastic.I had the same issues with some gaps between the canopy and the bow that I filled with small shims made from from little scraps of alluminum sheet. After everything is riveted together, I taped off the inside of the canopy and filled the void between the glass and the canopy tube bow with more proseal and smoothed it real nice.Its all painted and looks great plus dirt and stuff doesnt get down in the cracks..of course I work in heavy aircraft maintenance and I bring home all the expired proseal (cheap)!! Good luck

Bill E,
RV-4 painting

 

[pierre smith]

Maybe

Bill,
My Air Tractor was annualled this winter and the glass center windshield had to come out. They replaced it and used proseal to fill the gap around the outer perimeter. They had masked the windshield up about a quarter of an inch so the proseal showed some.....it was done very neatly. However, before I'd flown a hundred hours, the proseal started flapping in the breeze and eventually came off. Bear in mind that it is safety glass, not plexi. Will proseal stick well to plex?

Regards,
Pierre

 

[Brian Vickers]

Here is what I did:

Re: Faring; I attached the forward canopy faring with Chemseal only, no mechanical fasteners. I would be absolutely shocked if the faring ever comes loose.

Re: Canopy fit; I used several bouts of heat lamps on the canopy bubble to make it behave in the tail area. I gently/slowly heated it up then speezed it past the desired "reshape" and held it with clamps and fiberglass packing tape. Then, turned off the heat lamps and let it cool. Using mild heat and several sessions of this slowly reformed the canopy. My canopy does not have contact on the bow in the last four or five inches of the tail.