Section: 38

Hours: 7

I was able to fit the canopy frame in the back of my Rav4 and transport it to the airport today. The canopy to fuselage fit appears satisfactory although perhaps not quite as good as the original.

Section: 38

Hours: 2

I applied the anti glare black for the under plexiglass area.

Section: 38

Hours: 4

I sprayed on epoxy enamel to match the cockpit interior. I used Stewart Systems EcoPoxy Enamel. To get a good finish you lay down a couple mist coats and then do a flood coat which hopefully will flow out to a smooth finish. Hard to do without getting runs.

 Section: 38

Hours: 7

I signed the canopy frame and left a message for prosperity before closing out the inner skin.

Final drilling the inner skin.

All skins riveted. The inner skin cannot be bucked so it gets pull rivets.

 Section: 38

Hours: 7

More counter sinking and riveting on the canopy frame today.

Section: 38

Hours: 8

The 2nd canopy hinge part arrived today!

After clecoing the frame and skin pieces together, I hung it between my 2 work benches to make sure there is no twist before doing the final hole size drilling. This insures a straight canopy frame that will properly fit on the fuselage.

Here is the frame assembled with all holes drilled to final size ready for riveting.

 Section: 38

Hours: 5

I started assembling the forward canopy frame bulkheads. I'm still missing the 2nd hinge assembly. Hopefully it arrives soon...

 Section: 38

Hours: 7

I started riveting the canopy together and primed the remaining canopy frame parts today.

 Section: 38

Hours: 7

I restored my paint booth, got out the paint gun and applied primer to the new canopy frame parts. The roll over frame was undamaged and I was able to cleanly remove it from the canopy frame so I will reuse it in the rebuild. This will be good because all the screw holes will perfectly match those already in the plexiglass.

While programming elevator trim throws on my Garmin G3X I discovered I could not achieve the required control motion of the trim tab. After doing a little research on VAF I discovered that the early RV-14 kits came with a linkage assembly that was too short. I ordered a new set of parts from Vans and built a longer one. Here is a picture of the original (on the left) and the new one. 

 Section:

Hours: 0.5

When I checked out the navigation lights I discovered the tail light only operated in strobe mode. I ordered a new tail light from FlyLeds that supports nav plus strobe operation. It also nicely fits in the rudder tail fairing which will simplify installation.

 Section: 38

Hours: 7

I used the Dremel tool with circular cutoff disk to make a couple of slices in the fiberglass fairing skirt on the canopy. Then I carefully wedged toothpicks under the fiberglass to get it to part from the canopy frame and plexiglass. The epoxy does not form a chemical bond to aluminum, so I was able to break the mechanical bond with some effort. This is why it is so important to do a good job of roughing up the aluminum and plexiglass before laying up the skirt.

The skirt cleanly came off in 1 large piece after applying tooth pick wedges under it. Here you can see the glass bead/resin fillet and fiberglass layers and the underlying rough aluminum skin and plexiglass. You can also see the aluminum clips that hold down the edge of the plexiglass.

Here is the plexiglass after removing it from the frame. Luckily it came apart cleanly and I will be able to reuse it.

 Section: 38

Hours: 8

Deja vu- worked on assembling the canopy frame. I tell all my friends that I'll build my second RV in half the time. Well, that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it is definitely easier the second time around.