35-11: Fuselage Canopy Decks

At the completion of Chapter 32, the plans have a note that it would be a good time to paint the fuselage. The sides of the fuselage at this point do not have the canopy decks installed and i thought it would make sense to have these installed before final painting. 

This was against the order specified in the plans, so i asked if anyone who had gone before could see any issues going out of order. I also celco'd the panel assembly together and checked i would be able to slide it into position after the canopy deck parts were installed. It seemed like it would not be an issue. 

I started by clecoing the canopy deck parts in position, and match drilling them #30 to the longeron. I made sure the transition from the forward canopy deck to the aft canopy deck was in alignment inboard (where the curve was). This meant, in places, the parts overhung the side skins. In other places, the canopy deck edge ended at about the 1/2 side skin thickness point. I filed these down to be flush with the skin, then removed them and took off slightly more, so all parts were in the same position with reference to the side skins. 

I used the sheet to try and prevent filling the fuselage up with swarf.

The outside of the forward part did not align with the aft part. I decided to align the inboard visible sections, and adjust the outside edges with a file. 

The match drilling was done with the panel clecod into position.

The aft end of the forward part was radiused to look better than a square overlapping edge.

Back in Chapter 29 - Fuselage Side Skins, Page 29-09 Step 5 asked me to radius the top outer edge of the side skin, where it mated with the canopy deck parts. I could not understand why the plans ask you to do this so elected to leave the tops of the side skins at a square corner. I figured i would round them off once the canopy deck parts are fitted. 

Here you can see how the canopy decks overlap the side skins. It makes sense to slightly radius the outside skins now that i see how they fit - but my plan to do it after the canopy decks were installed also works fine. Once the parts are riveted on with proseal set, i can radius the side skins and canopy decks at the same time. 

This shows how the parts overlap with the side skins.

Dimpling or Countersinking

The plans call for dimpling the canopy deck parts, and countersinking the longeron to fit the dimples in the canopy deck parts. These parts are 0.040" thick - which seemed fairly thick to dimple to me, so i did a test piece to see. I also was curious what other builders had done and it turns out most have followed the plans. I did a test piece in some scrap 0.040" and test fit this in a countersink - it seemed to dimple fine. So i will dimple the canopy deck parts as per the plans, and countersink the longerons. 

The longerons were countersunk then primed.

Finally, i mixed up some proseal, and riveted the parts to the fuselage. I did this with the panel parts clecod in position. 

The panel attach angles were riveted on first. 

As per the fuel tanks, i tare out the scales with the mixing sticks on the plate. 

This way i don't have to worry about scraping off the sticks - the scales will show only the amount of proseal.

It was mixed then put into a ziploc bag.

Once the proseal had cured, the canopy decks were scuffed with scotchbrite and cleaned, then some primer was shot over the top. Next up is masking the cockpit for interior paint.