canopy work

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 8:37 am

Be careful to us a good sealing air/dust mask when opening that bag of "glass bubbles" and mixing it into the resin. That stuff is something you do not want in your lungs. Cotton flox is not as bad, but much harder to sand.

Looks good so far Brian. I assume your first lay up is the smallest in width and then you are going to go progressively wider on each one ?

I see you "borrowed" Kris Carroll's cutter

..

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 8:55 am

The bag is flox, the microbubbles is the 410 jug. thanks for the tip on face mask.

The photo I posted was just the flox mix filling the gap. Profiled that, then I laid down 4-5 layers of various width glass. Yesterday after work, I spent 20 minutes with some 60grit and shaped things again. Then added the final layer of wide glass. Went to friends for dinner, then pulled the peel ply last night. Looks Good! Should do a micro layer today.

Fiberglass ain't so bad.

I see you "borrowed" Kris Carroll's cutter Wink..

guilty. She was at work and I took liberty to scrounge her quilting room. I found 2 cutters and figured she didn't need them both. Also took her Grid cutting surface. Later before I used anything, I phoned her. She said "NOooo! not my good cutter, you can have the blue one" and "I have a cracked cutting board you can have also." anyway something about the yellow big wheel cutter is best for thick quilt layers and then mumbled something about men and tiny brains.

oh well, I got a nifty cutting surface with a duct taped crack and a blue rotary cutter. She gets a free pass to the quilt store....with my money.

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:30 am

Lookin great! I went with my wife to Joanne Fabrics and asked her to run in and get me a cheap fabric cutter. She came back out with a nice one and I said how much was that? I about had a stroke! Those things are expensive for what they are!

Post by **bullojm1** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:45 am

Brian-

Way to send the wife in to one of those places! I always feel like I have to check in my manhood at the door when I go in. And yeah, those pizza cutters are expen$ive! I think I blew $40 easily on the cutter and a mat. And I thought airplane parts were expensive.....

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Mon Sep 07, 2009 11:41 am

NOTE: NEVER, I mean, Never blink or question any purchase of anything the wife wants. When she said I'm buying a $2000 sewing machine, I just nodded and said "oh that'll be nice for your quilt retreats"....then I swallowed deeply and closed the SteinAir website. No wonder this is taking 3 yrs to build.

In fairness, she never questions why $3000 was sent to Aerosport or what did UPS drop off today or .....

Post by **Spike** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:38 am

I have the other problem, a wife who will generally bless me on anything I want to purchase but is too timid to spend money on herself. *sigh*

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:58 pm

So Canopy stuff was going fairly well, got the shape I want, the edges were coming along pretty nice. Of course I haven't had the front top skin in place lately, so decided I would toss it on to make sure everything was still lined up. Looking good, nice gap, couple of places for shims in the corners....whew getting that canopy is close to finished.

Then I opened it up, without thinking. Heck I've had it on, off, open, closed 50 times.

It only takes once.

Luckily, I spent much of my teens and 20's hammering sheetmetal doing custom cars, so here it is after 5 minutes....ok it was 5 minutes off crying and 5 minutes of repair

Post by **bullojm1** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:58 pm

Nice recovery Brian! Just as a FYI, if you haven't already installed the gas struts, they push the canopy even more forward.

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:08 pm

Struts are on, I figured that out a while ago....thanks to the posts from several of the RB's.

I also decided to move away from the canopy for a week and make some visible progress....either that or explode

Post by **Spike** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 8:41 am

Great recovery!

BSwayze · Post by **BSwayze** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:18 pm

Geeez, Brian...

Where were you when I made some "oopsies" on my project? Nice work!

I still have a big smilie on the belly of the fuselage that I tried to fix. The metal stretches the more you work it, and there seems to be no way to get it flat again. The smilie I have is now either an "innie" or and "outie" and I'm not sure which is worse.

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:32 am

Wow! Almost makes it look the like the before and after are backwards! Nice job man!!

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:57 am

Camera angle is everything.

there is still a slight crease fwd of the rivet line, nothing a little Gold Rage can't take care of.

sidebar: an innie is easier to hide than an outie. Depth and surface prep are critical

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:15 am

Brian,

Rage Gold is polyester based. Don't get that stuff anywhere near your canopy!!!!!!

hydroguy2 · Post by **hydroguy2** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:48 am

All is well, I haven't used any Gold Rage...it was just a namebrand that popped into my head.

Everything, (West Systems) I've used so far is in the previous pictures.

Bob Barrett · Post by **Bob Barrett** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:40 pm

Stay with West System because for me it is the easiest to use. Of course I am the worst person at fiberglassing so what do I know. I have used two other brands and then was given some left over West product. It sure beat the other two. Again I should never criztize any fiberglass product! West system and Areopoxy are both safe around the canopy but polyester will ruin your canopy!

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:39 pm

FYI - if you can get a hold of some chloroform, you can use it to weld plexiglas back to nearly full strength. Put the edges together, put a drop or two in the seam and it will be welded perfectly. Would work perfectly on that crack.

smittysrv · Post by **smittysrv** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:27 pm

http://www.science-projects.com/Plastics/PlexiglasWork.htm

----- Original Message -----
From: RB Lists - RV7 (support@rivetbangers.com)
To: rv7@rivetbangers.com (rv7@rivetbangers.com)
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 6:39 PM
Subject: canopy work

FYI - if you can get a hold of some chloroform, you can use it to weld plexiglas back to nearly full strength. Put the edges together, put a drop or two in the seam and it will be welded perfectly. Would work perfectly on that crack.

rivetbangers.com - Discussion topic http://www.rivetbangers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=30973#30973

Submitted via email

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 7:04 am

There ya go... I've used this technique to "glue" two 1/4 inch pieces of Plexiglass together at right angles. I needed a hammer to get it apart, and much of the joint remained after breaking the rest off. Pretty impressive.

acwrench · Post by **acwrench** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:53 am

Just fitting the frame for the eventual Big Cut! Read somewhere about a "dog ear" that some folks are cutting off instead of trying to set in the fiberglass lay up. I believe its in the glareshield sheet C602. Does anyone have pics of that issue?

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