Author Archives: Michael

Time: 2 Hours

With all the frame and inside skirt work done it was time to do some riveting. I put the frame back on the fuselage and bolted the two forward legs/rollers in place. The canopy was put into position with a couple cleckos on the forward loop of the frame.  I then used a Elmers glue stick to hold the small slices of rubber hose in place. 

The skirt was then put on with a couple cleckos to hold it. I then worked the skirt from aft to forward to get both the canopy and skirt to fit tight. Once I was happy with the fit all the way around I started the riveting. I started on the forward loop and worked from the top outboard left and right. 

The rivets that go through the canopy are AACQ-4-4 soft rivets to prevent cracking. I left the bottom three open as until I get the sides done. I started from aft working forward with just the soft rivets and canopy. I found that the rivet was a little tight going through the rubber hose slices. To fix that I used a little oil rubbed on the rivet to help it slide in. That worked nicely and made the job a little easier getting the rivets in place. 

After I had all the soft rivets in place I moved on to the remaining rivets which are the standard countersunk rivets since they only go through the skirt to the frame. 

So all the rivets are in place and no cracks or issues (knock on wood). So now I can work on the final outside shape of the skirt and cover up all the rivets for a nice clean look. 

Time: 2 Hours

A couple of items that needed finished before the final mounting of the skirt mounting. First was to address the haps that end up between the inside of the skirt and the frame. There is just a gap on the vertical parts of the frame. To fix this I used some quick setting epoxy to glue some washers in place. 

The second task was to adhere some felt strips around the bottom edge of the inside of the skirt. This will help seal up the canopy to the fuselage and reduce air from coming in while in flight. I borrowed the felt from Glenn and cut strips around 3/4″ wide. 

After I had all the peices cut I masked off the part of the skirts that would get the contact cement. 

Then I sprayed both the skirt and felt and let them sit to get tacky. While they say I removed all the masking. 

Once both were tacky I carefully applied the felt. It wasn’t as bad as I was planning and you have a few seconds to pull the felt off and reposition if needed. 

Hopefully this will help with the cold air coming in. We will see once we finally get in the air someday and will add more if needed. 

Time: 2 Hours

With the canopy off the frame and in the cradle I started working the holes to their final size. I am using the technique of opening the holes up and using a slice of rubber tubing as a shock absorber for the rivet. I used my plexiglass drill bit and opened all the holes to 1/4″. After that I used a dremel bit that looked like a 3/8″ ball and had a fine grit with just my fingers and not the dremel. This slowed me to put a slight chamfer on the edges and smooth them out. 

Time: 2 Hours

After cleaning up all the holes and patching I did on the frame I scuffed all the surfaces for priming followed by three coats of paint. After the paint was dry I riveted the inside skirt cover that I made in place. 

Now the frame is finished and ready for the final assembly. 

Time: 4 Hours

Now that the canopy skirts have the inside finished I could remove the canopy from the frame by drilling out the keeper rivets. Those came out really easy and I was able to get the canopy off without any issues. I will do some more work to the holes later before returning it back to the frame for final installation. Before removing the frame I drilled the forward roller wheel legs to the frame tube so they can be bolted in place. You wait to do this so that you can either raise or lower as needed to keep the shape of the canopy inline with the windscreen. For mine they both laid out just perfect without needing to touch the legs up or down. 

I then removed the frame and put it on the jig so I could work on it. First up was to debur all the holes and clean the metal shaving up on the steal. I cleaned and scuffed the inter frame with Scotch Brite pads to prep for primed and paint. I also added some epoxy/micro to the aft end where the two sizes tubes meet so that they will have a nice smooth transition. Since I can’t prime until the epoxy dries tomorrow so I moved on to another canopy frame mod that Glenn did. He noticed that in his first RV-8 that the inside canopy latch tended to run and chip the paint on the frame when the canopy was open. In the following photos you can see where it hits the frame. 

So to prevent this from happening I drilled a hole and tapped it for a #6 screw. I will then place a smal piece of rubber hose on a #6 screw and thread partially in to create a stop that the latch will hit and stop on before hitting the frame. 

So I will let the epoxy dry and get to painting tomorrow.