September 24, 2005

Today was the day for riveting the canopy together. I managed to buy some silicone sealant for Lexan and Polycarbonate from Orange Hell (Home Depot) during the week too so I could seal it properly.

First off I took off all the protective sheeting. Looks like I picked up a couple of scratches too, even though the film was in place. Nothing too serious that can’t be buffed out later. Then I ran a small bead of silicone around each rivet of the top strip and riveted that on. That bit was easy! Here’s a shot of the plexi sitting in place. Nice and shiny. And you can actually see through it. I wonder how long it will stay this nice?

Here’s the top strip in place…

Next I cleco’d down the canopy and riveted the front edge. Now then, here’s where I got a bit annoyed. I was picking out the rivets form the bag of AACQ-4-4’s and riveting away when I started pulling a rivet and I noticed it was a bit strange feeling. I stopped pulling it about half way and looked at it. It was a completely different type with a slight rounded head, no countersink, but the same colour as the AACQ types. Well, it was loose in the hole, but not loose enough to get out. What a dillema. I couldn’t wiggle out it no matter how much I tried. The only solution would be to pull it fully and drill it out. The last thing I wanted to do. So, I pulled it, and started drilling. Well, I got a drill through so far, but then it started spinning. Now what? I have this ugly ass rivet in my canopy that I can’t do anything about. Any suggestions? So, when you’re riveting away quite happily, CHECK what the rivet looks like before blindly putting it in the hole and pulling. Turned out I had quite a few of these odd rivets in my bag. Not good.

I did the skirts next. I ran some sealer along each skirt before setting them down to the canopy. Then I started riveting again, watching out for those odd rivets! Here’s the finished job for the left side. I’ll do the forward rivets there later when I remove the canopy from the plane. They’re hard to get with a squeezer right now.

Once the right side was done too, I did the little dog house for the canopy track. It all turned out pretty good really. It took me practically the whole day to do this stuff. I still need to make two little handles to help open the canopy with. These will be attached at the back of each side.