What I have learned from this and will do different next time...
Part of my coping with this tragedy is to focus on what I could do better next time.
I just got done writing a really long email about what I would do differently this next time, and I lost it! Anyway, I will write what I can again below as I am sure one or two of you investigating gluing would you care to know...
1. Next time I will only glue the front and back. 99% of the visual benefit of gluing your canopy is the smooth, screw-less, black strip that divides the tip up portion from the back stationary portion of the canopy. 99% of the work was in gluing the sides and improvising to allow it to work out correctly. Here are a few reasons why:
a. In order to maintain a 3/16? glue bead and still have your side skirts match up I had to build the canopy frame 6/16? of an inch narrower; this caused all kinds of problems that throughout the process had to be dealt with.
b. After making the necessary modifications to the canopy frame and ensuring the side skirts were flush, I had a huge gap between the side skirt and the canopy frame the thickness of the bead plus the thickness of the canopy. This gap was only visible from the bottom but required spacers in order to screw the side skirts on and a lot more Sikaflex to fill the gap.
c. It was a pain to position everything perfectly prior to gluing because the clamps that hold it all together were in the way of ensuring it was flush with the fuse all the way around. I had to use duct tape and position and adjust everything with the canopy closed, then open it and use clamps prior to gluing. It was possible, but very time consuming and iterative. Using screws it will be much easier to put it in its final position with the canopy closed and fastened.
d. Without fasteners, finding a way to keep the tops of the side skirts firmly against the canopy is an issue. If you glue on the side skirts, you have to have at least some gap for the glue. With Sikaflex, even the primer has some substance and will create a gap here. Once you glue the sides and the skirts you have to make sure that your glue line is perfectly straight with the top of the metal (inside and out) and this is very, very difficult if you are concerned about that kind of deal.
e. For those people who are considering gluing for the sole reason that you are afraid of starting cracks when you drill your canopy you should know that if you drill the sides only like I am suggesting then it is not as risky. The reason being that if a crack starts when drilling for a screw you can still stop drill it and it will all still be hidden by the canopy frame and side skirts.
f. I still really hate the look of the locknuts on the inside of the canopy and I dont want to use pop rivets on the plexi, so I will probably try to use riv-nuts or hat nuts in some way to hold the plexi on the sides without having ugly locknuts protruding inside, but it will be some sort of fastener rather than glue allowing me to keep the canopy frame standard width and maintaining the ability to put the skirts flush on the frame under the plexi.
2. I will only glue the front once the rest of the canopy is completed. I ended up with some oozing of glue to the inside of the canopy that was not possible to smooth to my satisfaction due to the limited space between the glare shield and canopy frame where they meet. It also created a problem in making the glare shield cover fit cleanly.
3. I will glue the black leather glare shield cover on prior to putting on the canopy bubble, then once the rest of the canopy is secured and I glue the front from the outside I can just do a small bead as required that goes under the glass and against the already in place shield cover for a much cleaner look.
4. I will either put a thing black strip or use black epoxy on the fiberglass transition on the canopy to avoid seeing the back of it from the inside.
Anyway, that is all I can think of right now...
- Matt Johnson