Forward Top Skin

Austin came home and we attached the forward top skin. Sure was glad he was able to help as my arms aren't long enough to reach most of the rivets. He ran the rivet gun on the outside and I bucked from the inside. I painted the glareshield in a matte hot rod black before riveting and it looked really good with the gold rivets against the black. After we finished riveting, I scuffed and repainted to cover the rivets that will be exposed inside the cockpit. The rest of the rivets will get painted over with the exterior paint.

Canopy Frame Adjustments

I cut the front canopy frame legs just a little short. It's a common problem. To fix it, I used a bronze sleeve bearing from McMaster Carr pictured below. I had to enlarge the inside diameter just a tad so I did the poor man's machine shop method of chucking a die grinder burr bit in the drill press and wrapping it with sticky backed sandpaper and reaming out the inside. Only took about 10 minutes and then I cut it down to length. You can see where I installed it just to the left of the blue "R" and the black wheel at the top of the photo. I also ordered two quick release pins with lanyards that I might use during test flights to replace the screws to allow the canopy to come off easier. It took a while to find the right sizes so I included the invoice with part numbers in the picture in case someone else wants to do the same.

Finishing Slider Canopy

I'm close to finishing the slider part of the canopy under Scooter's watchful cat eye. I painted all the inside pieces to match the interior trim paint including the underside of the trim strips. This will complete the bubble part of the canopy but I'll still have the fiberglass rear skirt and the fiberglass trim around the front windscreen to go.

Here's painting in progress for all the inside parts of the canopy plus the back of the co-pilot seat.

Fitting Canopy Side Skirts

Here's how I drilled the canopy side skirts to the inside braces. The paint stick with a shim holds the skirt in place while I reach inside with the wood backer tool to hold it against the inside of the skirt while I match drill the holes. I've finished both sides and it worked just fine.

Lancaster Shrinker-Stretcher

Here's a new tool I got to help fit the canopy side skirts. It's a Lancaster Shrinker-Stretcher. I only needed the shrinker jaws and I special ordered them with a stippled finish which is the roughness of 180 grit sandpaper and much easier on aluminum than the serrated jaws. You put the edge of the metal you're trying to shrink in the jaws and squeeze with the handle.

It allows you to make a compound curve like the one below. It may be hard to see but the side skirt is bowed in both directions which makes it hug the fuselage nicely.