"The Big Cut"... on a -4

So this past weekend was a big milestone for me in my (re) build. I got my sliding canopy frame operational (which is actually the HUGE milestone) and I cut the canopy down in the back and then for the finally... "The Big Cut"!









More pictures on my Blog:

http://rv-4fb.blogspot.com/

watch

Did your watch make any scratches?

Love the slider

I really like your canopy project. Just getting ready to take my fuselage off the jig and start doing the top. Do you have more details about the pieces needed to do this?

Do I need to do get the fastback/rocket parts to make it work?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks,
DrWalker

Hello David,

I would be happy to share what I did.

I ordered the turtle deck and new turtle deck bulkheads from John Harmon. The total cost was under $300. I cut the bulkheads in half and cut off the old then attached them and made a patch for the top center section. Then I laid the new turtle deck up and it was too large so I trimmed one side to make it fit. In retrospect I should have laid the turtle deck on first without trimming and then attached the bulkheads in tight and added material as need to reach the untrimmed height of the turtle deck on the inside.

Alternatively you could follow Ax-0's lead and make your own bulkhead arches out of cardboard as templates and use a new sheet to lay across the turtle deck and trim to fit. The second two methods will help avoid a bubble and get more of a straight line from canopy to turtle deck.

That's the easy part.


I looked into several method to make it a slider. by having a fastback it eliminated the need to have a fillet on the tail due to the length of the standard bubble when trying to make it a slider. I looked at Sammy James RV-4 and he used a double action drawer slides and said that he had help from one of the Skunkworks engineers. I also looked (pictures only) at the Team Rocket Sliding Canopy option. This seems like the rout to go with the double angled tracks on each side and a double slider wheel.


I ordered the RV-8 slider rails and found that I thought that I could make them work without bisecting them like the Rockets do. I indexed the back of the slider rails as far outboard as I could and positioned them to be parallel to the front. The hard part was the windshield Bow and front and back canopy bows.

I have a deadline at work to meet so I will finish up this post in an hour or so...

So like I said the hardest part was the 4130 tubing and trying to get it bent or bend it myself. I had no luck and had already ordered an -8 windshield Bow/roll bar. Obviously it was too wide to use and since I never found a person to bend a new bow the right size; I ended up modifying the -8 roll bar/bow.

I cut the bottom bracket and mounting plates off the bottom of the -8 bow. To get the right width I reversed the sides and flipped the pieces I cut off and welded them back on. I mounted the bow to the top of the side rails just forward of the main spar bulkhead.

Before I cut the windscreen I wanted to get the frame together and sliding for the rear portion. Based on the troubles I had with getting the 4130 bent I decided to purchase an rv-8 canopy frame. Shipping was a lot do to the size and the frame wasn't cheap. I ended up using only the front canopy bow since it matched the windshield bow so well and used a torch to bend one of the round canopy frame rails I had cut off to form the rear canopy bow. I used 4130 square tubing to make my canopy frame side rails.

From there I laid the new "Rocket" canopy from Todd's Canopy on the frame and bow. Did some trimming and once happy made the big cut. Cleaned up the edges and glued it to the boot lid and roll bar/bow. Then glued up the rear piece to the frame. From there I have been using a little bit of a mix and match in methods. I ordered the inner canopy braces for a -6 (x3) and attached them from the canopy rail to the outer canopy skirt which hold the skirt out in the front a little and flat at the back to follow the lines of the -4.

The rear skirts were made from scratch using the info I lifted from the build log on "Sprocket", a Harmon Rocket and found at the VX-Aviation website.

Thats up to date on where I'm at now. I plan on adding two Vetterman ventilators in the skirt for the rear occupant and making a aluminum strap for the top and sides of the windscreen then glassing in the fairing for the bottom of the wins screen and bringing it back to the sides to cover the meeting points.

Fell free to shoot me an email or call me.

I have a photo log going at: http://rv-4fb.blogspot.com

southtarnation at yahoo dot com
two39-nine10-one916

Jesse Loy