December 31, 2003
NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!!
Yep! Another snow day. In fact, it snowed off and on most of the day. A good day to stay in the garage and build an airplane.
I've been wanting to move ahead on the windshield and fiberglass work. So, I marked some areas for some clips, removed the windshield and then notched them for clips.
Then I spaced the windshield slightly above the canopy with small washers and installed the screws.
Next, I installed the slips with pop rivets.
Then I used black tape (hard to see it in this photo) and marked about 1" above the edge of the windshield. The masking tape is used to make a good seal between the plastic wrapping the windshield and the black tape.
This is a difficult photo here. I used UHM tape on the canopy to keep the fiberglass from sticking to it, then I used black tape and marked everything else. I'm hoping for a good seal with a good edge. I'm still very optimistic about using fiberglass... so we'll see how it works.
This is the gap on the left side. I notice tonight that some people slot the top skin and put the windshield through it. That way the skin helps to hold the windshield for a smooth surface. Well, I didn't do that... bummer. So, I'll be slowly building fiberglass up to make this an attractive surface. I've never worked with fiberglass... I might have said that before.... so wish me luck.
This is the right side, with a much wider gap.
For an experiment I mixed some fiberglass and applied it to two pieces of aluminum. One piece of aluminum has the UHM tape on it and the other doesn't. I also used a small piece of fiberglass matting. This is to resemble the windshield-to-canopy edge that I'll be mating in the next few weeks. Or sooner if I get brave. I'll let you know next year (tomorrow) if this turns out.
