Canopy fitment issue

First of all, I have already made the "big cut", which so far has turned out to be the quickest and easiest part of the whole deal. My problem is that my canopy seems to not be very "deep". When removing the flange at the beginning, I took pains to not remove any height that I might later need, and yet I'm struggling to get the canopy low enough on the frame to achieve the "stock" edge distance in the central area (about even with the mid-cabin brace), much less get some extra depth to allow the Danny King soft "bushing" procedure. I have about a 5/8" range fore and aft where the canopy fit is pretty good overall, and made the big cut such that the canopy will still sit on the front hoop either way. Due to the slope of the canopy at both ends, if I slide the canopy forward, the forward edge drops down, but the aft rises up, and vice-versa, leaving me with no net improvement in the middle. At this point, I can only envision two possible remedies. One is to "cheat" the canopy bow at the rear down below the 5/8" minimum specified clearance to the canopy rail, but to what new minimum? The other is to cut off the "tail" of the canopy which is resting on the bow at the rear, thus allowing the aft portion of the canopy to incrementally slide down over the bow, and just modifying the skirt as needed to cover it up. Or both. I'm more than a bit concerned about "gotchas" I'll have later down the road with either solution. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Bill,

Not sure I can help but will pass on what I learned having just completed what you are doing.

First off, lots of guys have done this and if you read the reports, there about as many ways to do it. I called Mr Todd several times since I was doing his canopy. At first his commentary was irritating, he talks fast and has some very firm opinions about how to do it, but in time I came to hear what he was saying, moved forward and came to agree with him.

His mantra is "find the sweet spot". What that means is finding a spot where the canopy sits well, naturally. And trim as much of the aft end as you think you handle with regard to the skirt. I ended up about three inches forward of the frame curve. Trimming the aft end makes the canopy spread easier in that area and if you clamp it moving forward it finds its sweet spot.

The front edge won't be the same as it was relative to the windscreen as the constriction of the canopy at the rail changes how the front is. That bothered me at first but in time I trimmed it again so the front edge was parallel to the windscreen.

Oh, one other item. The windscreen was fixed in position, I drilled 2 #40 holes through it and the roll over bar and clecoed it, so it would not move. If it is not fixed, I don't know how one could get the canopy to match it.

Once the canopy is clamped to the rail and seems in its sweet spot, it too should be clecoed to the rail in a few places to keep its position relative to the windscreen. Then the bottom of the canopy glass can be final trimmed.

The windscreen contour did not match the canopy on the left side and had to be shimmed out a bit. A couple plastic tube spacers were used as shims and buried under the Sika that bonded the windscreen to the roll over bar. Clecoes were used to keep it all in place until cure.

This is how I did it and would do it that way again, including using Sika. Ultimately, you will figure a way that satisfies you and move forward. There have been many built and yours and mine will be in the number some day also. Its just not as easy as some other parts of the build.

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Hi William,

I wish I was there to come over and take a loo, but David really has the best idea - there are MANY ways to make it work, and you'll find one. I understand your concern about not walking into a "gotcha" later, but yes, the skirt can cover many things....

I've seen enough of your work to bet you sove this shortly and move on!

Paul