Canopy trimming complete! Painted glare shield..

Finished trimming/sanding the two canopy halves!! All that is left is to clean the canopy up and bolt them in place. With that being said, I need to clean off a bunch of tape residue... so I bopped over to Dan's site to see what he used. Here is a quote:

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The suggestions I got from the Matronics list gurus was to use one of the following substances, which are apparently all completely safe for use on acrylic (which has some really nasty tendencies with various stuff):

kerosene

WD-40

mineral spirits

naphtha

white gas

"Goo Gone"

isopropyl (already tried that with minimal success)

Since I just picked up a bottle of mineral spirits.. that's what I'm gonna use.
----

I also painted the glare shield. TIP: Prime it first... the black paint I used let the filler show right through.. It looked awfull. I shot a coat of gray primer over the first coat of black, which covered the filler right up.. then another two coats of black over that. Good to go!

Painted glare shield.

I countersunk the holes along the forward edge of the rear window.

Countersunk holes.

I cleco'd the front canopy to the tip-up frame and pulled out the aluminum gap strip. I cleco'd it on and had Sandi help me set it in place. I marked a line where the aft edge of the roll bar was. Took it off and did some trimming and filing of the edges. It needs a coat of white paint on the inside and it will be ready to attach.

Sandi helped me torque the engine mount bolts.

Was a good day in the shop.. felt productive, did some things for the last time which is kind of a cool feeling.

Next time out I'll go ahead and put screws in the side rails of the canopy with the side skirts on, possibly go ahead and rivet the sides skirts on as well. Weather dependent, I'll shoot a little paint.

(Time: 7 hrs)

Heat Selector

An order from Van's arrived today and I had ordered the do-it-yourself heat selector valve. So I pulled out the parts for that and put it together. Pretty simple.

Two tips however, before you start, position the base of the selector on the firewall and drill the holes that will hold it on. One hole you can't match drill once assembled. Second tip is to rivet the nutplates on before you attach the 2" duct piece. You can't squeeze the rivets on one of the nutplates with this attached.

Took me just under 2 hours to assemble.. saved $30 by putting it together myself and it was a fun little project.

Kit contents

Selector assembled

Mounted on firewall

(Time: 2 hrs)

eBay shopping

Builder friend Ray is always harassing me about my eBay shopping for airplane parts. Well.. why not... if you wait long enough and your patient you can get some good deals on stuff.

Recent purchases:

-- Altimeter - haven't seen it yet.. but it was $80 and in excellent shape.. save $100.

-- Seat belt - picked up a new AM-Safe seatbelt for $38... saved ~$90. I'll get the other one from Van's.

-- Oil cooler - bought same one Van's includes (AeroClassic) with FWF kit for ~$100 less and it was new.

So.. keep your eyes open.. set up the 'favorites' thing on ebay to let you know when a new part is listed that matches your search criteria. (A guy just last week was parting out an RV-8.. lots of instruments and stuff.)

More canopy trimming and some rivet filling

I worked nearly all day and feel like I didn't get a whole lot accomplished. My goal for the day was to fill the rivets on the glare shield and then paint it black and to also trim the two canopy pieces for the final time.

I picked up some of the Rage Gold lightweight filler that Dan used on his plane a week or so ago. I wanted to fill over the blind rivets that you used on the C-702 to attach it to the tube. So I mixed up a batch and globbed it on, pushing down into the holes. It hardens up quick! You have about 2 mins to work with it and almost instantly it sets up. 99% of the first batch was wasted. It takes 20 mins to setup, so off to the canopies for trimming.

Filler w/ hardener before mixing. (This is WAY too much.. need about 1/4 this amount.)

Some filled areas.

I'd previously taped up the rear window for the final trims, so out came the cut-off wheel and I trimmed the curved portion of the window.

Back to the tip-up frame.. I sanded down the filler and mixed up a new smaller batch to fix some places I missed. Gee.. while I'm at it, why don't I just fill all the rivets on the skin... so I gooped some stuff all over, trying to cover the rivets.

Back to rear window.. I trimmed the forward edge.

Back to filler.. I sanded it down... still have some craters (not pinholes!).. new batch.. Oh yea... this stuff sands well but takes time... I'm not liking this process at all.

A few more fill/sand sessions and I'm getting frustrated with this stuff. I can't seem to get rid of the craters/pinholes. Not sure what I'm doing wrong but it's pissing me off. I finally got it to a point that I think it is paintable... and I need to mount the canopy to check the gap between the two halves... so I'm calling it done.. whatever pits/pinholes are left are just going to have to stay.

I spent the next several hours taking the rear window on and off a dozen times to sand the forward edge. About half way through I pulled out the belt sander to speed things up. Each time you file down one area that is rubbing, it sits a little lower and another area pops up. I didn't get it finished but I'm close.

Rear window.

So all-in-all, I wore myself out and didn't get done what I wanted to.. but it was all stuff that needed to be done. The filler process was .... enlightening... somewhat educational but I'm not sure what I learned. There has to be a trick to it, just haven't figured it out.

(Time: 6 hrs)

Bellcranks - Canopy lock

I putzed around for half an hour trying to figure out how best to install a canopy lock. I ordered the ignition switch from Van's that comes with two door/baggage locks. My initial though was to install it in a manner that would keep the C-607 latch handle from moving but I couldn't come up with a good way of doing it. (If you planned ahead and worked on this before riveting the C-712 angles, you could probably do it.)

I finally decided the best place to put it would be on the side, towards the aft end of the canopy. The latch arm will swing down through a slot in the canopy deck. I'll cut a slot in the latch arm. This won't stop someone from operating the latch mechanism, but they won't be able to open the canopy.

Potential lock location

I spent the rest of the evening bolting the elevator bell crank in place and also bolted on the tube that the sticks attach to. A bit tough bending over the side and putting in those washers.

(Time: 2 hrs)

Cabin area work...

Started the morning off by bolting the rollbar in place for the final time.

I made some clips out of aluminum strip to hold the static line. They'll get riveted on with the skins.

Static tubing clips.

A clip cleco'd in place.

Set all the rivets in the F-632A channel to the 706 bulkhead and the roll bar.

Assembled the fresh air vents. They are ready to get mounted in the plane when the panel is done.

Fresh air vents.

After dinner and a DVD, I had Emiel come out and help me rivet on the F774 top skin. I crawled inside the tail cone and used the back rivet set while he held the bucking bar. Only took as an hour to do. I then spent another 30 min peeling blue plastic off, I should have done this before I put the skin back on.

View from rear of F-774 and rollbar.



(Time: 5 hrs)

Painting and reassembly

Weather decided to pop up into the 70's today, so I finished prepping a bunch of cabin peices for painting... roll bar, side skirts, angles, tip-up frame, etc. Then I shot a coat of paint on them.

Tip-up frame painted.

Rollbar painted

Brake pedals - was going just paint the sides but decided to paint the whole thing. I still may spary some no-skid stuff on the front surface.

After things had a couple of hours to dry, I cleco'd on the F-774 top skin to get it ready for riveting. Before you cleco in the F-787 stiffener web for this area that runs along the top, rivet the two center most rivets where the 774/775 skins overlap, then cleco in the rib.

The two rivets that need to be set - before cleco'ng in the F-787 stiffener web.

While paint was drying, I glued the fresh air vents to the faceplates.

I set some rivets on the forward edge of the F-774 top skin and riveted the F-732B angle to the F-632A channel. I set the roll bar back in place and called it a night.

(Time: 6 hrs)

Misc stuff...

-- Finished trimming the aft edge of the passenger canopy side skirt.
-- Rolled edges on side skirts, top skin and canopy joint cover.
-- Trimmed plastic and taped up the rear window for trimming.

(Time: 1 hr)

Vent brackets, map lights

I removed the canopy and frame from the fuse and screwed the panel back in place. I positioned the vents and drilled the F-793 vent brackets using the holes in the fuselage skin. Deburred, dimpled and riveted them on. Vents are almost done, just need to attach the actual vent to the faceplate.

Looking for something else to do, I pulled out the F-704K upright cap strips and drilled an 11/16" hole in them to mount the little round led lights I bought. I'm putting one on each side and they will make good map lights. I'm planning on mounting them on the inside of the cap strip, so all you will see is 3 screws and the light itself, not the big base the light rotates in. I won't have access to these once I rivet the caps on, but they last 10,000 hours or so.

Lights - Look better on the outside or inside?

(Time: 1.5 hrs)

Rear window installation

I marked and trimmed the aft edge of the rear window and then positioned and clamped it in place for drilling. This was all very easy. The one catch is that the holes in the support frame need to be #35/36 so you can tap them. The plexi bit is 1/8" which is too big, so I drilled through the plexi until the drill bit made a small dimple in the rollbar, then used a #30 to drill through the support frame and put in a cleco. I removed the window and tapped all of the holes in the frame. I need to do a little more trimming on the window and it will be ready for installation.

About that time Lonnie came out to pick up our local airport master plan book and then Robert, our local EAA tech counselor, called to say he was on his way with the borescope. That killed about 3-4 hours of building but had a good time chatting.

Back to building, I started working on the service bulletin kit. The piece of aluminum they gave me was too thin for my installation. I had lowered the angle that attaches to the 906 bulkhead to provide some clearance for riveting. So I pulled out another piece aluminum that was thicker and made up a new piece.

I started cleaning up parts and scuffing things in order to paint them. I got most things prepped but ran out of time before Sandi came home from NYC, so I'll have to put that off.

(No pictures yet.. Sandi had the digital camera.)

(Time: 6 hrs)

RV Flying and some shop time...

I had really hoped to get a full days work in but instead I went flying with Matt Burch in his subie RV-9A (which is for sale btw). Also got to ride in Steve's RV-6A which he kindly let me land.. although my approach was pretty awful. A good way to spend a Saturday morning.

Back in the shop, I mounted the C-608 block to the support frame, so the canopy latch is complete.

Time to start on the rear canopy window... I trimmed aft edge of the rear window and got it ready to start drilling the holes. I'll start the first thing in the morning.

(Time: 3.5)

Guide blocks complete...

Back from Vegas on Monday.. been to cold to work so I just got back in the shop tonight. Weather is really shaping up here in the midwest so hopefully I'll get back in the full swing of things.

I managed to squeeze in a little time in the shop tonight and finished shaping the canopy guide blocks. They are working out real well now. I need to polish them up a bit to take out the cut marks and they'll be done.

I pulled out the parts for the canopy handle that mounts in the center of the support frame... should get that installed Friday night.

(Time: 1 hrs)