Tonight I painted the canopy fairing and peeled off the tape that forms the aft edge. for the most part it came out ok, but I was a little disappointed in the way the tape broke up on the aft edge as I peeled it away. I’m left with sections of jagged paint where small pieces of the electrical tape are still trapped under the aft edge of the fairing. I will need to carefully go over the edge to remove the pieces of tape.
Tonight I finished sanding the canopy fairing. Over the weekend I had given it one more coat of high build primer and picked up some more 400 and 600 grit sandpaper. I also happened across a curved sanding block with a radius of 4 inches, which is exactly the radius I needed.
The sanding went well and I am pleased with how it has turned out. I taped off the area that needs paint and will paint with a 2k primer (once it arrives in the mail). I opted for a spray can primer because I feel the spray pattern tends to be better than when I use my own spray gun system.
My biggest concern with the fairing right now is whether the tape, which forms the aft edge, will come away cleanly from the very thin layer of resin and fiberglass. will find out next week sometime.
Today I installed the LED light strip on the glare shield. I bought a cheap red LED light strip from Amazon, so I’m not sure how well the strip will hold up in the long term. To make replacement easy I installed some d-sub pins and left a service loop held down by the Velcro.
Before I installed the light strip I tested the lights to make sure they worked with a 9V battery, then cut the light strip to size.
The glare shield has a great insert for the light strip, and I had this wrapped up in no time.
I struggled to get a neat-enough looking wiring installation. My service loop for the fans adds extra wiring that needs to be held in place. I used a decent amount of spiral wrap to prevent wires from chaffing on the shop heads of the rivets. the result was ok, but not as tidy as I had hoped.
Tonight I installed the Aircraft Specialty glare shield, wired up the canopy defrost fans and canopy lock micro switch, and prepared for the LED light switch.
I had to uninstall the fans, test them, then install the leather glare shield. Both of the fans ran fine with a 9-volt battery. The glare shield fit is absolutely perfect, including the Velcro that holds the aft edge in place. Reinstalling the fans was slightly more challenging as the screws pass through the leather, but I was able to get it done without much trouble.
Wiring up the fans, I decided to use d-sub pins to connect them, in case they ever fail and need replacement. The pins are insulated with heat shrink, so replacing them would just require carefully cutting the heat shrink, then in-pinning the fan and installing a new one.
Everything is wired into a molex connector that came with the canopy wiring kit from Vans.
The LED lighting strip isn’t here yet, but once it arrives I can install it and wrap up the canopy wiring.
Tonight I riveted the two pieces of the spinner mounting plate together. I was able to squeeze all of the rivets.
I then started back on the canopy. I have a few canopy jobs to complete; wiring, leather glare shield install, canopy fairing final sanding and painting, and then the guide pins.
I started with the canopy lock micro switch. When closed and locked, the micro switch is depressed, closing the circuit and sending a signal to the panel. In the event the canopy is not locked, a warning appears on the panel.
The wiring should have been easy, just check the switch, install two spade terminals, and it’s done. Unfortunately I the process I found that one of the wires is caught somewhere in the channel inside the canopy rail. Luckily the wire is still making a good connection, but I couldn’t feed the excess wire into the channel. I ended up shortening up the wire and messing around, but it worked out in the end. Anyway, the black wire is the one that is jammed somewhere.
On Friday last week I started the remote canopy release modification, and I wrapped it up last night.
The original canopy release mechanism has a handle in the middle of the panel, towards the top. The handle is one end of a steel rod, and the other end is connected to a lever that sits behind the sun-panel. That lever drives a simple mechanism that extends and retracts the canopy hinge pins.
The downside of this approach is the loss of usable space on the panel. So Vans created a modification to relocate the handle. By using a cable instead of a steel tube, the handle can be placed anywhere. The recommended location is forward of the fuel selector valve, in a recessed area.
The modification was quite straight forward, and over several evening sessions I was able to wrap it up. I’ll have to remove the covers again so I can install the fuselage wiring harness, but that should be an issue.
Last night and tonight I installed the remaining canopy seals. I decided to remove the canopy from the plane so I could get better access, and that made the job much easier.
Tonight I installed one of the canopy seals and cut others to shape. The seal went in surprisingly easily, and I was able to torque up the final 20-odd nuts securing the canopy along the aft edge.
Tonight I feathered the forward edge of the canopy fairing down to the aluminum skin. I decided to leave this where it is for now, and have Dad check it out when he visits in July.
I moved on and installed the canopy unsafe micro switch, and the avionics fans on the glare-shield. None of these are wired up yet, I’ll get to that later.
Tonight I sanded the fairing, and was able to complete shaping it, and sanding to a feathered edge on both the bottom and top edges. I then applied a coat of resin to fill in all the pin holes and to gave a smooth surface to finish sanding. It took a while using 150 grit sandpaper, but it wasn’t that difficult. It will be good to see it tomorrow with some fresh eyes.
