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Now that the rudder pedal assembly is in there for good (knock on wood), I simply bolted the new brake pedals on. This takes more time than one would think because they are a pretty tight fit between the uprights.

After I got them all on, I was wrestling with myself - should I get the powder coated or not???

UPDATE (5/27/05): I decided to get them powder coated after all. Took them to Performace Coatings in Jonesboro, GA to have a nice silver finish applied.

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I guess this uncerimoniously marks the beginning of the finish kit. Start by locating and drilling holes and slot for the canopy latch handle.

Here you can see a drill guide I made to ensure straight rivet lines. And here's me spending LOTS of quality time with the needle file. My hands killed after this.

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Finished the cutout in the fuselage and continued by making the angles. My advice here is to make sure the latch handle overhangs the edge of the angle by 1/32 or so. That way it will be flush with the fuselage skin when closed. I actually made the angles twice because in my first attempt, the handle wasn't exactly flush with the skin in the closed position. Clamp the pieces and mark the holes.

Then I proceeded by temporarily installing the WD-617 canopy latch weldment and the matching hardware.

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This morning I filed and polished the latch handle so the pieces fit together very well. Then, once again, I remade the C-712 attach angles to get the best fit on the outside of the plane.

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Killing time, mostly. Made the two C-728, two C-729 and one C-731 parts. Sorry no pictures.

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Drilled the C-617 and C-618 blocks for the tip-up frame. Simple in theory. Hard to get true holes in real life. Go slow and make the holes one at a time. I used a center drill for the .25 hole and that produced excellent results. You can see me marking the hole in the middle picture.

The #12 holt holes on the big rib are wallowed very slightly (due to drilling thru the other rib) but they are true in the small F644 rib. Wish I had a #12 center drill! For some reason, I am aiming for absolute perfection lately.

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The past few days I worked on fitting the tip-up canopy frame. Lots of iterations are required to get a good fit. I took the suggesstions of Dan and Walter and my installation is going pretty smoothly. Little things like angling the edges of the c hinge and taking a little material off F-768A helped the frame slide in easily. I also sprayed some LPS-1 on the hinges to make it slide in between the UMHW blocks easier.

Then it was on to making a nice gap between the front skin and canopy skin. I started filing the edges of the canopy skin to get an even gap but realized what I needed to file was the seal support angle.

Once a good fit was achieved, I drilled the splice plate as well as the rest of the rivet holes in the canopy skin.

Later on in the night, I temporarily fitted the rest of the canopy frame just to see what I can expect. I made the spacers and found they were too thick. New ones were made with a thickness 13/16". The picture shows the thicker spacer which is reflected in a wider gap between the cabin frame and canopy frame. The gap should be 1/4.

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Had to take the cabin frame (roll bar) off to make the access holes for the tip-up canopy latch system. The plans indicate a squarish hole but the shape of the cutout is not critical. Rather than working to produce a perfectly square square, I chose the circular method. Used a 7/8 unitbit. You can get away with slightly smaller but extra clearance doesn't hurt. i modified the location of the hole very sligtly to be centered on the arms of the WD-617-PC weldment.

While working in that area, I also drilled the hole for the static line to pass through. The snap bushing wouldn't snap so I filed off the barbs and epoxied it in with a little JB weld.

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Chuck came over to help me drill the holes in the tip-up canopy frame. We used a 1/4 drill to mark the hole then removed the frame and finished the hole outside of the plane. Our spacing ended up being a lot like Dan C's. On his site, he states that Van's says as long as there is some material it will be OK.

We stepped up the hole to 23/64 then finished with a 3/8 chucking reamer I purchased a few days earlier. In the end we have about 3/32 - 1/8 edge distance. Again this is OK because the load is mostly vertical.

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Miscellaneous messing around with the canopy frame to get it perfectly fitted to the fuselage. Not too exciting, just lots of iterations. I took the side rails off many times and bent them just so.

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Today my task was to rivet the canopy frame. All right - this shouldn't take too long. Wrong.

The plans have you make these wedges that fit between the side rails and front weldment. Van's gives you this big honking aluminum stock to make them from. I had given it to Chuck to see if he could do it on a mill. In the end a bright light came on (doesn't happen too often) and I found an ingenious way to make them. Use the big, thick aluminum angle and cut the taper on a band saw. The 'L' shape provides a good handle with which to work. Finished them on the belt sander then polished on the scotchbrite wheel. Here's the canopy frmae riveted on one side with the wedge in place.

OHHH, I had to remake the C-613's because as shipped, the WD-716 has a hole that interferes with the hole they tell you to drill in C-613. You can see what hole it is from this bad C-613. I remade the C-613's and drilled it where it should be.

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Made 3 trim cuts on the canopy to remove the clamping areas. Wasn't as bad as I thought... just a lot of plexiglass snow and stench. Actually the smell of cutting plexiglass reminded me of the orthodontist days many moons ago.

I had my dad and a good family friend help me maneuver and steady the canopy. We didn't take any pics of the cutting process because I didn't want to ruin my nice camera with plexiglass dust. It goes EVERYWHERE. Was going to do it outside but it was raining.

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Thank goodness for great website like Dan's. He shows pretty well where the cuts need to be. Tonight I managed to lift the canopy in position and mark it. Ended up making two cuts on the front. Between each cut I used the sander to finish the edges. Even went back and smoothed the edges on the side with 220 grit.

The middle picture is after the first trim. After the second trim, the front sits down very well and I have about a 5/8" gap at the rollbar... Pretty darn good if you ask me. I might see if I can get an even smaller gap before slicing this thing in half.

I haven't touched the back end of the canopy yet. I'll do that after I get the front in position and the top skin temporarily in place.

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Did a little trimming at the front to see if I could get it to sit down all around the perimeter. Still have a slight 1/8" gap at the very center which I can push down with my fingers with little pressure. About a 5/8" gap at the rollbar.

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OK, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Went pretty smoothly actually. Before I made the cut, Chuck and I put the top skin on just to mark the rear window. Then we removed the top skin and used masking tape to mark the slice line. About 1/32" aft of that line we put another line of 2" tape down. Then we built up the tape about 4 layers to give the cutoff wheel something to guide. This is very, very helpful when making the cut.

Time to cut! Having all my work tables being taken up by stuff in the workshop, we moved the canopy outside where it was nice and muggy. (hey, we are in the south - might as well take advantage of it) We taped the canopy to it's correct width in about 4 places. Then set the canopy on 4 2x4's to lift it off the ground enough so I can cut the edges.

The actual cutting went very easily. Be sure to tape as you go to prevent it from sagging. I went from the left side to right in a continuous cut.

Here's the canopy in position.

Because the canopy sat above the rollbar when we marked the cut, the slice now does not lie in the center of the rollbar! It's OK at the top but not at the bottom of the canopy. What to do, what to do...

We removed the tape guide and made a new tape line now that the canopy sits on the rollbar. We thought about sanding to the new line but realized that was going to take forever and a day. So I got out the Dremel with a small cutoff wheel and went to town. I did the left side before calling it a night. After I get it trimmed, I'll take a 2' sanding bar and straighten the edge.

Still will have to trim the rear canopy half to match.

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Next up was drilling for the canopy attach bolts. Here you can see me drilling the pilot holes in the aft top skin. And along the roll bar I made a crude jig to align the holes. You can see it here.

The plans call for 2.5" spacing along the roll bar. No matter what I tried with that spacing, I always hit a rivet on the back edge of the roll bar. So I put the holes evenly between the rivets which works out to an even 3" spacing. I wanted to drill the rear holes first because that determines where the holes go on the fwd piece.

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Well the time has come - no more procrastinating. Chuck, as seen the picture, came over to help drill the canopy to the frame. Pretty easy to line up the plexiglass drill bit with the 1/16 pilot holes I made earlier.

It all went very, very well til the end. Isn't that the way it always goes? At the final hole in the side rail, the drill bit got stuck and jammed in the hole. We tried to free it but this crack formed! Ouch. Obviously the crack has to be trimmed away and I'll do that with a scallop.

One thing I didn't like was the holes in the plexi being so close to the edge. Once you put a countersink on there, the countersink will go all the way to the edge. I don't know what to do. I had to trim the plexi enough so it fits in the joggle, otherwise the canopy skirts won't lie flush. I guess I drilled the pilot holes in the side rail too low but the plans don't give a dimension!

And after all the holes were drilled, we noticed the canopy rose up in the front! ARGH! Don't know what to do here. It can be pushed down with little pressure. We can either make clips to hold it down or use some type of adhesive such as Sikaflex in the gap. (The Sikaflex instructions say you need a 1/8" gap when gluing). We'll see.

Time to call Van's and see what to do about the holes close to the plexi edge and the gap at the front.

Thinking about it overnight, it may be wise to simply drill new holes between the existing holes on the sides. This will give us better edge distance and let the front sit where it should.

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Well after sleeping on it and calling Van's, I settled upon drilling new holes between the old holes. I chose this method because 1) it would help the canopy sit in it's correct position at the front and 2) it would give me good edge distance on the sides.

Ken at Van's recommended I use some AACQ4 blind rivets in the existing holes. I thought about this a great deal - weighing the pros and cons. Pros - no more holes to drill. Cons - have to get 120 dimple dies and countersinks, ugly pop rivets on cockpit side, etc. Ken strongly advised against the use of adhesive because you might have to take the canopy off in the future. I think if you are going to do a new canopy you'd get a new frame and everything. Plus the front of the canopy is bonded on to the skin anyway!

You can see the tool I made to make the holes all at the same vertical location. A little higher than last time to help the edge distance thing. You can also see that I routed out the crack in the bad hole. I'll probably clean this hole up some more. Notice how 'off' we were in drilling the holes.

Well here it is all drilled correctly! I guess I will have a bunch of 1/8" lightening holes in the canopy. I taped the front of the canopy down really well and started drilling the side rails beginning at the front and going aft. This is what we should have done in the first place.

On the cockpit side, I'll add a decorative strip behind the nuts to cover the open holes. No one will ever know (except the few who read this site!)

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Only a little work tonight. Simply countersunk the holes in teh canopy. Also enlarged the holes in the frame to sit a #6 screw. Still have to enlarge the screw holes in the canopy. Will probably do that with a Uni-Bit.

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Chuck was able to help me rivet the canopy skin tonight. No suprises. Just worked from the center towards the sides.

The pictures you see here are from a few days down the road after I more or less finished painting the cabin.

The one thing I missed on the canopy skin was drilling and dimpling the holes for the blocks that attach the tip-up struts. Oops! The material thickness at that location is about .088 so I think I can countersink for #6 screws instead. Or make a different shaped block that I can rivet from the bottom. We'll see. Shouldn't be a big deal. I don't think I can dimple .088" (.025 skin and .063 canopy frame) thickness.

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Drilled the canopy brace to the canopy frame. Note I didn't bend the flanges on the 6 holes because I just couldn't get nice bends. Plus it's plenty strong as is. Still have to attach the clasps (probably will use pieces of 1" aluminum with NAS1097 fluish rivets to make a completely smooth look). Still have to rivet and paint as well.

On the outboard brace, the 4th rivet from the edge sort of lines up with an existing rivet in the canopy frame. Drill this rivet out and shoot a longer one thru all the pieces. You'll see what I mean.

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OK, back to business. Placed the front and half pieces in place to see where I need to trim at the interface between the two. I got it pretty good to start - only a little trimming was required at the ends on both sides as you can see by the lighter blue tape.

After I trimmed it, the fit was pretty darn near perfect around the frame. The key here is to use long, straight sanding bars. Almost ready to drill the rear window to the frame.

Before Chuck comes over to help me rivet the braces on, I wanted to get the clasps in place. I strayed a bit from the directions here and used a bigger piece of metal, about 1" if I recall, to fill the gap. Also used two NAS1097AD3-3 rivets per side to hold them in place. This gives a nice flush look to the brace.

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I was just pondering the other day, the basic sheet metal work of the plane is pretty much done. This is one of the last tasks working with sheet aluminum.

So here are the side skirts fitted and drilled to the canopy frame. Take your time and you'll get a great fit. One suggestion is to move the bottom row of rivets up about 1/32 - 1/16" because they could sit in the corner of the canopy frame (on the inside).

My fwd canopy skin is not sitting down flush anymore and I have this gap as you can see in the second picture. Not sure what to do here. I though about trimming the canopy skin at that line and making new skirts. This would help a little. Or rivet on a small piece of skin inside of the canopy skin.

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OK, thought this was going to be as painless as it gets. Not... I had worked to get a smooth, even gap on the rollbar. So Chuck and I drilled #40 holes (started with a plexi bit then finished with a #40 regular bit). We had to use #40 because the holes need to be later drilled to #35, which is smaller than #30 obviously. The smallest plexi bit available is #30.

Anyway, when we went to drill the aft holes, the curvature of the plexi did not match the skin. The skin easily puckers as you see in the pictures. Not good! We stared at it forever thinking what did we do, how did it get this way, etc? We though the skin would pull the plexi into place.

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After thinking over the problem for a day now, I went to the shop to see what we have to work with. If I remove some clecos from the lower half of the rollbar, I can push the window perfecltly flush with the skin. The problem is that now I have a gap at the bottom and a few screw holes don't line up.

What to do? One idea is to screw and glue the window to the rollbar. Which glue to use? Well last week, I spent a while on the net finding a suitable product. I wanted to use glue along the fwd canopy side rails but knew Sikaflex was not going to work because it needs a 1/8" gap. The canopy needs to be flush there. Anyway, Van's recommends a product called Weld-On for the RV-10 windows (bonding them to the fiberglass shell). So I went to the website of the product they recommend and found this structural adhesive called Weld-On #10.

So my current thinking is to use some of this stuff on the rollbar. To cover the unsightly gap now created, I will make attach a metal strip on the fwd bubble to cover the rollbar (approximately 2.5" x 54").

I posted a few messages asking for a new rear window and/or help in the local area. We'll see what tranpires over the next few days.

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Paul came over to day to lend me a hand. Figured the maker of the 2005 Sun-N-Fun Grand Champion can really help me with some great ideas. He did and I thank him.

Released a few clecos from the rollbar, pushed the rear window up and drilled. The last few holes will be unusable but that's OK because I plan on using adhesive there.

Paul also helped me buck a few rivets that hold the subpanel and switch panel attach angles on.

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Just getting the canopy ready for final installation. Here I am using the plexi scraper I got from Avery Tools. I then followed with 220, 320 and 400 grit sandpaper to get a smoooooth finish.

As soon as I wrap up some things in the fuselage, I'll put these suckers on for good.

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Paul came over and assisted me in installing the rear window. Remember, I chose to screw and glue it on. The adhesive is IPS Weld-On #10.

Before I glued, I made sure to tape off the areas in which the glue should not go. I missed by a little and ended up getting some tape stuck between the rollbar and window. I was able to scrape most of it off. I also cleaned up the glue on the front edge of the window. There I plan on making a nice fillet with ProSeal or something similar. I also plan to paint the window it self to hide all that ugliness on the rear side.

Lastly, I plan to seal the edges of the window where it meets the aft skin. I was able to feel some air pass through as I dusted off the window with air from the shop compressor.

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Made the C-725 ball stud forward mount and fitted it to the canopy. I should have made and drilled these to the canopy frame BEFORE I put the canopy skin on because you're supposed to drill #12 then dimple and countersink the parts.

I decided to use #8 screws instead because the countersink would fit in the thickness of material. I countersunk the bottom holes and then did the top. But I didn't adjust the countersink cage for the top hole and it ended up being deep enough for a #10 screw. So now I have a #10 screw (as specified) in the top location and a #8 screw in the bottom.

Bottom line, make and install these blocks before putting on the -702 canopy skin for the final time.

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Well we've gone and done it. The forward canopy is on for good. My dad is in town for a few days and his assistance was needed for this task.

After some last minute trimming to make sure the canopy sits down in the forward corners, we scuffed the surface with 320 grit then cleaned with denatured alcohol. Just like I did on the rear window. He got in the plane and I applied the glue from the outside while using clecos on the curved upper surface.

It all seemed to go well... until the next day. When I went back out to the workshop to check on it, saw some crazing or cracking in certain locations. Ughhhh, not good! Here is a shot of the right side.

After much debate between Chuck and I, we came to the conclusion that it's possibly solvent crazing. They say using Denatured alcohol is an iffy proposition and maybe I just unlucky on this side. But it's weird that some of the cracks are from holes in the plexi which were not cleco'd.

I think I'm going to stop drill the cracks that are above the frame and use some methly chloride (weld on #3) to fix those. Then I'll make slightly taller side skirts to conceal the damage. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out. I dont want to buy another canopy and frame!

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Well - the canopy is on for good! My dad and I glued it on about a week ago with mixed success. Had some solvent crazing and cracking occur in certain areas but I think it will be OK.

Anyway, I decided to forge ahead and start the fairing on the front edge. Used some West Systems fast cure with 410 filler. I made a curved scraper with a 2" radius to get a nice fillet. After this cures, I'll sand it then lay up some fiberglass on top.

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I finally said 'time to move on'! I figured that I'd probably do more damage trying to fix the 'nearly impossible to see from the outside crazing'. So I'll leave it alone and fly it. If it gets worse over time, I'll deal with it then.

On that note, I riveted on the canopy side skirts. Had to do some minor fitting to make sure it will lay down against the window nicely (along the screw lines).

I also made up another batch of filler and touched up a few spots. Almost ready to lay some fiberglass down.

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It's Columbus Day - Happy Columbus Day everyone. Of course my wife has off since she works for the government.

Isn't it purdy? Sorry I didn't have the other EFIS screen in the shop to make it more complete. Hopefully, everything will be installed and lit up soon.

Today I also primed & riveted the 1/2 x 3/4 angles to the switch panel.

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Jeff of www.jeffsrv-7a.com fame was in town and stopped by for a visit. My first official project visitor! Jeff's a great guy and generously offered to help me glass the windscreen since he just got done doing his not too long ago. Boy his tips and tricks helped produce a great outcome.

Here you can see me prepping for the application. We have the glass cut on a 45 degree bias. We also cut lots of strips from dacron.

We wetted the 12" wide strip of glass with epoxy between two sheets of plastic. Then we cut 4 strips from that and applied it on the aircraft. More pics will follow.

Once we had all 4 layers down, we took the dacron strips and smoothed the air bubbles out as best we could. The Dacron also helps to soak up excess resin. Looks pretty good so far.

Thanks again Jeff - hopefully I can return the favor someday! I guess it's on to sanding, filling, sanding, filling once this all sets up.

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The first picture shows what it looks like when you peel the dacron off. Pretty smooth! But still need some sanding for the contour I want.

The second pic shows me during one second of the 2.5 hours of sanding. You make lots and lots and lots of fiberglass snow. My vaccuum hated it. Start with 40 grit> I used a some 60 and 100 grit on the edges to start feathering it. I removed the 1/4 tape I had at the fiberglass edge to start filling and feathering.

The third picture shows a microballoon mix to fill some air bubbles and apply a base for feathering the edges. Will sand some more tomorrow!

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The slurry dried hard and now the sanding begins again. No new exciting pictures to present. The final contour is pretty much there. Only filled one low spot on the left side. Ready for final sand and fill process.

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Chuck came out to the hangar today and helped me do some various things to secure the canopy. First was to install the tip-up struts. Many guys fret over attaching the ball mount studs to the side rails. I made this a two-minute task by making a nutplate strip. Simply cut a piece of aluminum and rivet two nutplates that match the hole pattern on the little mounts. Slide it in from behind and waaalaaaa.

After we got the struts on, I climbed in and drilled for the latch fingers. This took some thinking and tinkering to get it just right. And finally we put the handle on (which you can see on the top of the rollbar).

Thanks Chuck!

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Comments that appear on this website should not be interpreted as instructions on how to build any aircraft. Please consult with the manufacturer.

2004 Scott Will.