After cracking my first canopy (see how), I bought a new canopy from Todd's Canopies. This time, I got a darker tint, made from 1/4" material. I really don't understand the 1/4" advertisement, it measures exactly the same as the Van's canopy I cracked. It did come with much more material around the edges though. I had to trim at least an inch off both sides, still leaving enough material that I had to cut notches for the vertical tubes in the frame. I must have cut 4 inches off the front, where the fuse curves upward.

When I cracked the first canopy, the crack actually happened when I set one of the "keeper" rivets. The countersink edge pushed the plexi apart. This time, I used 3/32 pop rivets for keepers, to keep the forces down. Since I had so much more edge distance, there was little risk of a crack.

When I fit the canopy skirt, I made sure I had it all trimmed and edges sanded before I attached it, so the edge along the plexi would be straight. It would be very hard to sand this edge after it is attached, without scratching the plexi.

Following that principle, when it came time to make the frame around the front windscreen, I masked off the screen with electricians tape, and laid the fiberglass over that. Then, I could take the whole frame off and sand and fill and make all the edges straight, without risking scratches in the plexiglass.

After all the sanding and shaping is done, I will attach the frame to the plexi with Lexel, and to the fuse with epoxy resin.

This gave me a minimum of mess, and a neat trim line all around.

Finished for now, final paint will come after she flies for a while.

July/03...Before painting, I filled between fiberglass and both aluminum and plexiglass with "heavy body seam sealer" (thanks to George Meketa), just  a small filet of material. This is a body shop item, that is used to seal between bed and body in pickups, and to seal fenders in older cars. This gave me a very nice joint, that has held up well for 110 flying hours. It is ready to paint 2 hours after application.

Here is the final result. To see details of the baggage door hinge, click here.