Category: Canopy (Page 13 of 20)

So, I continued on the canopy aft channels this weekend. First I spend a couple of hours making them nice and straight, and adjusting the flanges to the correct angles. I used the roll bar template table I built earlier on…

After that, I dug out the F-704 splice plate, that connects the two channel halves.

The channels have tooling holes, so I marked these onto the splice plate, to make sure to have enough edge distance when laying out the rivet pattern.

…and good thing I did, the outboard center ones would have been two close to these tooling holes.
I chose to make 4 rivets in these rows instead of 3, problem solved. 🙂

I aligned the splice with the channels, and drilled only 4 of the holes in each channel for now, and only to 3/32. If adjustments are necessary, it will still be possible when enlarging the holes to final size.
Update: I made the mistake of fitting the splice plate upside down here, and had to make a new splice plate.. :-/

Som spacers are needed, to keep the right distance between the roll bar and the canopy aft channels.

I used double sided tape to hold them in place.

Clamped in place.

When trial fitting the WD-725 side weldments, I noticed that the aft angle was keeping the weldment from laying flush with the channels…

…so I had to file them flush.

The right side weldment was still not laying perfectly flush.

..so I noticed that Van’s hadn’t aligned it properly when welding. 🙁

Here you can see how bad it is, compared to the left one…

I had to cut the vertical weldment, to align it properly. Hopefully I can get Bo to weld this for me too.. 🙂

Meanwhile, I am going to drill the canopy hinges again. This time I made drilling bushing from a piece of 1/4″ cobber tubing

Worked perfectly!

Then I drilled a 1/4″ hole in a wodden block, and clamped it to the canopy hinge, using the drill bushing for aligning it perfectly.
It turned out perfectly, but I still have to enlarge it 3/8″ for the bushings… Ill sleep on it first. 🙂

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