Slider canopy "big cut"

I'm just getting mentally prepared to make the big cut on my 7 slider. I positioned the frame to the "best fit" on the center spine but this leaves me with a gap on the forward bow of close to 3/4" in places. The rest of the fit is great with no spacers needed until I get to the forward most 6" of the frame, that is where the plexi and frame start moving in opposite directions. I got the frame to fit beautifully on the aircraft, and I understand that when I cut off the windscreen the plexi will relax a bit. But will it take up that much space? I'm really reluctant to change the location of the frame relative to the canopy since it fits so well for all but the forward 6". Now if I move it to a point where the forward bow fits well I'm left with a terrible fit on the rest of the frame. As far as I can tell I have the "best fit" possible and I'm hoping the forward few inches will come to fit properly after the cut. But I don't want to find out otherwise after cutting a very expensive piece.

I'm also planning on following the manual and riveting the canopy.

Thanks everyone.

Trevor

Do you really want to drill all those holes and possible fracture start points? I have one hole in my slider canopy, and I was very nervous about that one hole. This is kinda like primer or not, but that was the way I went. I positioned mine where the front bow fit good and accepted a slight gap at the rear top longitude bar. Sika filled that gap just fine. I had to trim the bottom sides of the windshield when it came to that part. about 1/2" tapering up to 0

Big Cut

Just did mine recently. This part can't be rushed. Go with the overall best fit. Separating the windshield from the slider changes everything and it will get a lot more relaxed & floppy and tend to drape over the frame. It will fit better still when the excess plex is removed. Make small cuts and sneak up to the final size. Every time I took a little off the sides or back it relaxed and changed the way it fit the frame. Tried several different methods of making the cuts and settled on a good Dremel with a 90 deg head and a 1-1/2" thin abrasive disc. Bought 2 new Unibits to drill the latch hole and both left a unacceptable amount of chipping on exit side, old unibit that I been trying to wear out for 30 years did a fabulous job. I'm rebuilding a nosed over 9 so had old broken canopy to practice cutting and drilling holes. I wouldn't call it fragile. Found that I could be fairly rough cutting or drilling and old canopy had no tendency to crack, temp was 50 deg F. I would suggest making some practice cuts & holes to refine technique before the main event. When you cut off the rear corners you will have decent size pieces to practice on. I went with Sika so my only hole is for the latch.

Don Broussard

RV 9 Rebuild in progress

bret said:

Do you really want to drill all those holes and possible fracture start points? I have one hole in my slider canopy, and I was very nervous about that one hole. This is kinda like primer or not, but that was the way I went. I positioned mine where the front bow fit good and accepted a slight gap at the rear top longitude bar. Sika filled that gap just fine. I had to trim the bottom sides of the windshield when it came to that part. about 1/2" tapering up to 0

Click to expand...

Duplicate the above as my opinion and experience. Glad I went the Sika-Flex route.