CANOPY

This canopy is from Todd Silver in Ft. Lauderdale. It is a Long Ez "big canopy" meaning it is slightly taller than a stock canopy. It is also tinted. It is covered in saran wrap and tape here, but it looks great. Todd can be reached at http://www.kgarden.com/todd/

The plans say to build four small wood blocks and use bondo to glue them to the longerons. The canopy then sits on top of the blocks in the proper position. The point is to fix the canopy about two inches above and one inch inside of the longerons. I have not had the luck with bondo that the plans seem to suggest, so I built two wood blocks to fit crosswise between the longerons. I then put nails to hold the canopy in position. Worked well, the canopy was easy to slide around and move until it was in the proper position.

Foam is then added and the sanding begins. The foam was about three inches thick in places, and I was covered in blue when finished.

After the foam is sanded, the glass layups are applied. A wood frame is built around the canopy to hold it when removed from the fuselage. A dremel is then used to cut the foam in front of the canopy and on the turtledeck. The foam will adhere slightly to the longerons, but saran wrap was laid over the longerons prior to the layup so it would not stick.

This is a closeup of the rear turtledeck portion after sanding.

The canopy is then removed and laid upside down on the bench. You cannot see here, but the foam has been removed in the spots for the hinge and latch hardpoints. The inside foam is also sanded. The sides are left alone because they match up with the longerons. The forward and turtledeck sections are sanded to about 1/3 inch thickness.