Canopy skirt: 2.7 hours

Sanded down the layer of micro mixture on the skirt.

Canopy skirt work: 5 hours

• Removed peel ply
• Sanded off high spots with 80 grit
• Marked locations for 3 pull rivets for each side of skirt
• Cleaned skirt
• Mixed up and applied an initial layer of "micro" filler (epoxy and microspheres mixed to the consistency of peanut butter to cake frosting)

Most of this filler will be sanded off:

Very serious...

Canopy skirt 5th layer of glass: 5 hours

I got the 5th (and final) layer of fiberglass on the skirt:

• Blew off skirt with compressor, wiped with denatured alcohol and blew off again.
• Cut fiberglass cloth tape strips for 5th layer
• Mixed and applied flox to fill voids
• Applied with layer of fiberglass cloth
• Applied peel ply layer

Fiberglass cloth tape strips cut:

Fifth layer finished with peel ply:

More Canopy skirt sanding: 4.5 hours

I got the skirt all cleaned up and sanded down but in the process of doing so I discovered a few voids and thin spots so I have decided to add one more layer of fiberglass cloth.

I'm going to put a small amount of flox in a few spots then lay the cloth on top of it.

Sanding progress:

Canopy skirt sanding: 4 hours

Sanded down canopy skirt flox areas with 80 grit sand paper on blocks.

The flox is extremely difficult to sand, lesson learned is to use the least amount of flox possible.

After 4 hours:

Canopy skirt work: 2.5 hours

Removed peel ply from canopy skirt.

Did an initial sanding with 80 then 120 grit paper.

I had a few low spots where the tape had pressed in a good bit so I mixed up some epoxy with flox (chopped fibers that increase strength) and applied it to the low spots. After the flox mix cures I will sand it and apply a layer of epoxy mixed with a sanding filler.

Filling in a few low spots with flox:

After removing the peel ply (before any sanding):

Fiberglass canopy skirt layup: 11 hours

• Prepped and organized fiberglass supplies
• Put another coat of mould release wax on canopy
• Measured and cut fiberglass tape for skirt layup. I went with 4 layers and ended up cutting over one hundred pieces of fiberglass cloth tape for the layup.
• Fabricated canopy skirt

The actual process of wetting out and laying up the individual strips for the canopy skirt took the majority of the time. I did get faster as I went. The West System epoxy pumps made mixing very easy. I also applied a peel ply finish layer that took a little longer than I thought.

On the windscreen layup I will do all prep on the day prior then just dedicate one day to the layup to make it a bit more reasonable.

Overall I'm happy with the way everything went.

Fiberglass supplies:

Cutting the fiberglass cloth tape:

Wetting out the tape pieces with resin (a lot of this):

Four layers of fiberglass:

Peel ply layer added (this does not bond but tears off and sets up for further finishing):

Baggage area panels painted: 1 hour

Cleaned, prepped and primed the lower baggage bulkhead panel and side panels.

Clear coated cabin parts: 1.5 hours

Since I could not do the skirt layup and the weather was nice I gathered various interior parts that I had previously primed and sprayed them with three coats of Easton 2k Aero spray clear epoxy.

Before that I cleaned the parts with alcohol and used a tack cloth. A couple of panels required some light sanding.

The epoxy should provide a very durable finish:

Canopy skirt prep: 3 hours

Decided that the clear duct tape was too thick for supporting the fiberglass layup for the skirt. I think the edges would have had noticeable ripples from the overlapping tape.

Removed clear duct tape and replaced with packing tape.

Marked off edges of skirt with electrical tape to use as a guide while laying up the skirt.

Taped paper to the fuselage to protect from stray epoxy.

Applied two coats of mold release wax. I will apply a third coat before the layup.

I calculated the amount of fiberglass cloth I would need and found that I did not have enough so I ordered more from Aircraft Spruce.

Taped off for skirt:

Fuselage protected:

Canopy latch and prep for skirt: 4 hours

Drilled out exterior and interior canopy latch handle.

Tapped exterior latch handle for #8 screw.

Made a new thicker cover plate for the canopy exterior latch to make the fit a bit more snug.

I could not locate my #8 countersink so I stopped work on the latch.

I removed the canopy, removed tape around the exterior edges and removed excess sikaflex.

Replaced canopy and did initial taping to form fiberglass canopy skirt.

Canopy latch coming along:


Initial taping for skirt: