Trent's RV14 Build: Glareshield Cover

There is a company in the US, which makes a very nice glareshield cover. The trouble is, it is around $1500 AUD (plus the shipping cost!). I really liked the idea of it, but figured i would have a go myself! I would rather spend the cash on some avionics!

The first step was to make up a rough paper pattern - this was left very long at the front, until such time as i had the canopy in place and could accurately work out where the front of the canopy would end up.

The idea was to have one piece of vinyl on the top of the glareshield, french stiched to a second smaller piece along the aft edge (which would contain a small pocket for a LED strip). I would use a piece of 3/8 fuel hose as a bullnose on the glareshield edge, and some foam under the top vinyl, to give a soft feel. I would glue the foam and top vinyl to a piece of 0.016" alclad, which would hold the glareshield in poisition using the fan retaining screws, and the rubber hose on the aft edge. I even designed a 3D printed fan bezel, the better finish off the fans. The lower section would be velcro'd into position underneath the glareshield lip. The corners would be stiched half way, and be retained by the edges of the canopy skin.

For the vinyl, i chose a UV stable marine vinyl, called Nordic 2 in Ebony color.

I initially thought i would have a go at the sewing myself - so made up some test articles using some cheaper vinyl from my local craft supply place.

I laid out a small test article, to see if i had the required sewing skills.

Sewing through 2 bits of vinyl went ok!

I could not get the white stitches looking very good...

Then there was this effort - my little machine would not sew through 2 layers plus foam.

Getting even stitches was impossible with my small machine

Calling in the Professionals

It was time to call in the professionals! I cut the required pieces from the vinyl and took them up to my local auto unholsterer, who has a side business making aircrat seats. For $100, he was able to sew it as per my requirements. He let me stand over his shoulder, and instruct him exactly what i needed to be done.

The parts were cut out, leaving a very generous seam allowance

He used a twin needle machine to get the job done in one go!

The finished product - ready to be installed.

This is the LED pocket for the underside - he used a piece of beading material on the aft edge, to shield the light from the pilot's eyes. I will adhere the LED strip to the vinyl, and probably also retain it with some stitches.

Much more professional that i managed.

Fitting to the aircraft

To fit the vinyl to the aircraft, i had a couple of options. The first was to just spray glue the foam and vinyl to the canopy skin - which would mean it was permanently attached, and in the event it needed replacement, a very hard proposition.

The second option, was to glue the foam and vinyl to a piece of 0.016" alclad, and secure this using the screws which hold the defrost fans in position. At the aft edge, the sheet was held in position (and to the same curve as the canopy skin), using some split 3/8" rubber fuel hose. I chose this method, so cut out a piece of thin sheet. I match drilled the sheet to the fan mounting holes, then cut it to final size. A couple of holes were made to allow the fan air to pass through.

I copied the paper template to a bit of cardboard to see how it fit on the glareshield, under the canopy.

Then transferred this to the 0.016" alclad.

I pushed the cardboard forward until it touched the canopy, then moved it back slightly - to give a bit of leeway at the front. You won't see this, as it will be under the fibreglass fairing.

The sheet will be held in place at the front using a split piece of split 3/8" fuel hose, and in the middle at the fan mounting screw locations.

The fan mounting locations were gang drilled for cutting out.

Foam was glued on - i used masking to make sure i only got glue where it needed to be.

The edges were given a contour / bevel

This was the glue used, as recommended by the vinyl supplier.

The area around the fan bezels was painted black, so no aluminium or pink foam could be seen through the fan bezels.

Attaching the Vinyl

The next step was to attach the vinyl to the foam - the positioning of this was critical - if it were in the wrong place, then the stitching would not line up with the bullnose. To make sure i got this right, i first attached velcro to the underside of the canopy skin - which would hold the underside aft section of the vinyl in position.

Tape was used to allow scuffing of the paint, only where the velcro would be stuck on.

I could then stretch the glareshield out onto the foam and make sure it looked good. I was then able to peel back half the vinyl at the forward edge and apply some glue (without moving the vinyl stretched over the bullnose). Once the glue was dry, i removed the vinyl off the velco, and added glue to the aft section - gluing the whole upper part of the vinyl to the foam.

The foam / aluminium sheet was held in position with clecos at the fan mounting screw holes. Then the vinyl was velcrod on to the underside, and stretched over the canopy skin onto the foam.

A lot of maskng was used to make sure the glue only went where i wanted it, then the forward part was peeled back and glue applied, then stretched back into position.

Once dry, i peeled back the cockpit side of the vinyl and did the same.

Once again, masking was my friend.

Once the glue was dry, the whole assembly was removed, and the vinyl was stretched over the aluminium sheet and glued into positoin on the underside of the sheet. Good practice for when i do my side panels - they will be done in the same manner.

The holes were cut out for the fan mounting screws, and a hole for the air to pass through was cut. The edges of the vinyl around the holes, are secured by clamping pressure of the bottom flange of the fan bezels. The bezels have a wide lip, so the tops are flush with the vinyl and account for the thickness of the foam.

Finally it was installed, along with the awesome 3D printed resin fan bezels (note that these ones have louvers which are 90 degree's out - due to a design issue!). Dad printed me some updated ones (yet to be installed).

I reckon these look good.

This shows how the LED light pocket will work. Hopefully, the bead will shield the light from shining directly into the pilot's eyes.

This is the corner detail - the vinyl is retained by about 1" of stitching at the forward edge, which stretches over the corners of the canopy skins. On the cockpit side, it has been folded over and has velcro applied, so it sticks on neatly.