A little windscreen work and battle of the bulge

I removed all the clips and spacers from the windscreen. I'm very happy with the results.

The next step will be doing some sanding on the outside Sikaflex and then applying another layer to fill gaps left by the spacers and clips. I will also try to get a nice cosmetic fillet on the inside of the roll bar.

I was happy to remove the ill conceived bulge from the lower cowl!

I used some very thin aluminum as a form for the new fiberglass:

Here is the form ready for fiberglass:

I went with 4 layers of cloth to give more allowance for sanding:

The initial repair went well. Although a fair amount of filling and sanding is still to come.

Initial Sikaflex windscreen install

I was able to get the first phase of the windscreen install done today. I'm happy with the results so far. I think all of the prep work will pay off.

I went ahead and installed the defog fans. (I'm really looking forward to "permanently" installing the instrument panel and all the avionics!)

 

Windscreen taping in progress:

 Fuselage taping done:

Windscreen primed with Sika 209D (used the "Aktivator 205" first):

Fuselage primed:

First application of Sikaflex 295UV after some smoothing. I taped some weights to the windscreen to help close a small gap in the front.

I'm going to let the Sikaflex cure for a few days then I will remove the clips and spacers. I will clean everything up and apply a more Sikaflex and try to get a nice finish on the inside of the canopy. I will also be adding some weatherstrip to the inside and the outside will be covered by a fiberglass layup.

Inverted oil system hose and windscreen

I was not happy the appearance of the bulge I installed in the cowling to allow room for the routing of my oil return hose from the half Raven inverted oil system. I was either looking at major rework on the bulge or hose reroute. I found that a 180 degree fitting would allow a different hose route and not require any cowling change. I watched the EAA video on making your own hoses and ordered parts from Summit Racing.

Here is the key 180 fitting and the 10AN braided hose with the new route:

The hose is just for draining oil back to the sump. The Raven sump fitting is also protected by a standpipe in case of hose failure. 

These tools made the process easy: no mar aluminum adjustable AN wrench and vice jaws, also the ice pick and modified pliers make adel clamps very easy to install.

Glareshield paint turned out nice:

After priming glareshield:

Windscreen ready for install. 

I will use some weight on the center of the windscreen and the temporary clips on the sides for the initial Sikaflex application.

Getting closer:

A lot of on and off and iterative sanding with my small belt sander.

Initial fitting:

I also did some reinforcements on the wheel pants: