Trent's RV14 Build: Canopy / Roll Bar Wear & Detritus

The Issue

I have seen a number of RV's with tip up canopies, where there was some crud between the rear window and the roll bar - it gets in along the front edge where it is not sealed. I also have seen a few RV's where the canopy has worn on the roll bar. Since the canopy is clear, you can see all of this from the outside.

I asked about this on the forums, and never really got a good response / solution. One possible solution, for the aft window anyway, is some clear RTV underneath the window. This of course would be seen from outside.

Here are some examples:

This shows how the canopy edge is wearing on the roll bar.

This shows the crud that ends up underneath the aft window trapped agaisnt the roll bar - it looks average in my opinion.

This example has crap under both the canopy and aft window

The Solution

The best solution i could come up with, was to paint a stripe on the inside of the aft window and aft canopy, to hide the roll bar. This would hide any sealant used on the aft window, and also hide any crap which gets into the gap. For the aft window, i think this is a good solution. For the canopy, the issue would be that if the paint began to flake or wear off, it would look even worse, and probably be hard to touch up.

To help me decide, i placed some tape on the inside of the canopy, accurately placed where the stipe would be. I initially marked some tape on the outside of the aft window, aligned with the edge of the aft window shims. I then transferred the tape to the inside surface.

I was then able to add some marks on the canopy a fixed distance from the tape on the aft window, to make sure the strip i was planning to paint was parallel and even.

Tape was added to the aft window, aligned with the window shims. I then made marks a fixed distance forward of this, to delineate where the forward strip would end.

The tape was transferred to the inside of the aft window.

And also transferred to the inside of the canopy.

The aft window and canopy was then installed, and i decided i needed some more tape width along the aft window, to make the strip look even on the roll bar.

I needed more tape width on the aft window for it to look even - the left side is closer to the roll bar edge, than the right side.

This is the final location of the strip (a bit wider on the aft edge)

The Execution

I decided i liked the look of this, so decided to go ahead. I used tape as a guide to accurately scuff the area i wanted to paint strip to be, then cleaned it with iso. I used more tape to make sure i accurately placed the 3M fine line tape, which would give me a good edge. I then masked everywhere else to make sure no overspray for on the canopy.

I ended up painting:

1. The inside of the canopy - from just aft of the canopy frame to the aft edge of the canopy glass.

2. The inside of the aft window - from the edge, to just shy of the roll bar edge.

3. The outside of the aft window - from the edge to just inside where the skin edge would be.

This is the first bit of tape butted up against the original tape showing where the paint needs to go.

This tape will protect the canopy when i scuff the area where the paint will go,

The original tape was removed, and the area thoroughly scuffed and cleaned.

This is the fineline tape i used to mask off the paint edge.

Tape was added over the scuffed area, butted up against the guide tape added for scuffing. This now becomes the guide for the fine line tape.

Fine line tape added.

The canopy edges were masked.

Everywhere that i wasn't painting was thoroughly masked off.

The aft window went through the same process:

Electical tape was used on the ourside of the aft window as this conformed to the curves a lot better.

The outside of the aft window was masked to just inside of where the skin edge will be (the blue line).

Finally, they were painted in the Stewart Systeme EkoCrylic, in Boulder Grey.

Once dry, to counter the issue of the paint on the canopy edge wearing against the roll bar, i purchased some 3M Paint Protection Film (PPF) and applied this in a strip over the canopy paint.