Category Archives: Canopy

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. 

Time: 6 Hours

I spent Saturday working the final touches of the inside of the canopy skirt. Most of it won’t be seen but there are areas that are visible to that passenger and I wanted them to be nice. Basically it was epoxy/micro over the surface the  sand. I repeated this process a couple of times until I was happy. Then I primed the surface with filler primer and sanded to a smooth finish. 

I cleaned up the dust and prepped the skirt for paint. Three coats of paint later and I’m real happy with how it turned out. I have plenty of work to do on the exterior side but will wait until it is riveted on with the canopy. 

While I was painting I decided to put my new Bruce’s Canopy Cover on the RV to protect the canopy. I had orders a special color, charcoal, as well as my N number on the side. 

Time: 4 Hours

I removed the skirt to start the long process of sanding down the micro I had put on. It’s teadeous work and is very dusty making a mess. I worked on smoothing out the surface and shaping the aft end for the slider. 

I still have a pretty good “bump” where the pink meets that new stuff. I added some more micro at this joint and smoothed it out in hopes of easing this joint. It did help a lot but will need final shaping later down the road. So now I wanted to turn my attention to the underside where it meets the sliding rail. I want a nice fit and shape so that it looks good. To get this I used clay to fill the void on the slider. 

I then covered the clay and rail with packing tape. I mixed up some epoxy and micro and buttered the underside of the aft tail of the skirt and slid the canopy forward to sit it down in its final position. After removing the skirt again I sanded and shaped to get a clean fit. Now that I had a real good base underneath I added 3 different layers of fiberglass to strengthen the aft end. 

When this drys I will clean up the underside with micro to get a fairly smooth surface, it won’t be seen unless you are trying to look up under the canopy but I want it nice. 

Time: 1 Hour

In between fiberglass work I try to accomplish any task I can. One thing I wanted was a canopy stop. The idea of this is that the stop will keep the canopy from sliding back to far allowing the inside canopy latch handle to hit the aft bulkhead as it slides back scratching the paint. There are several ways to do this one of which is a rubber stopper slid into the canopy rail. I thought for a while of where to get the rubber to do this and an idea came to me as I was sanding my fiberglass. I was using a 3M sanding block which is made out of hard rubber to work on the canopy skirt. It was fairly inexpensive, three or four dollars, so I thought I’m going to cut this up and see what I can come up with.I started with 1/2″ wide by 7/8″ tall and around 3″ long. I trimmed and sanded so that the stop would fit nicely with an angle in the aft end. 

I will eventually trim this down for the length after I install the handle so that it will just clear the bulkhead and give me the most open position I can get.