To start the day (per the instructions), I disassembled the entire Canopy Assembly. Then, the rest of the day was mostly about countersinking and a little bit of dimpling and riveting.....oh, and some priming and painting. These are the C-01406-L & -R Forward Canopy Rails. They were previously treated with Alumiprep, Alodine, Akzo primer and sprayed with grey paint (a portion of the Rails will be seen when the Canopy Assembly is complete—I think). To finish the preparation of these parts, ALL the holes in both Rails had to be countersunk to accept a dimpled .025 Skin. Each Rail has 30 holes, so 60 total. I completed all these countersunk by hand because my countersink cage wasn’t functioning properly and I didn’t trust it! It took a LITTLE while, but the results were very good.....long road to get there, but turned out great.
The four individual parts that make up the Canopy Handle were shown in Part 10. Here, the Canopy Handle is partially assembled with the 10 rivets on the “handle” portion. All the empty holes, and ones with clecos, will be used to attach the Handle to the Aft Canopy Frames. (Every time I look at this, it looks like the face of someone screaming - similar to the seat belt crotch strap brackets)!
More countersinking! These are the Left and Right Canopy Rail Assemblies. The holes on these pieces were countersunk to accept the head of an AN426AD3 rivet (only three holes) or the dimpled .025 Skin (58 holes) of the Canopy Side Skins. So, a total of 116 holes.....again, by hand! Again, the results were great.
These are the C-01419-L & -R Canopy Side Skins. These pieces were previously treated with Alumiprep, Alodine and Akzo primer. After the 46 holes in each Skin (92 total) were dimpled, I painted the “inside” portion of the Skins grey. I believe you may be able to see some of the inside of the Skin where in attaches to/with the Canopy itself.
These are the C-01405-L & -R Aft Canopy Frames. These pieces were edge cleaned and treated with Alumiprep, Alodine, Akzo primer and sprayed with grey paint.
In the previous session, I fabricated the two C-01437-L & -R Canopy Handles from stock aluminum angle and countersunk the three attach holes to fit the head of an AN426AD3 rivet. The handles will be used to “lift” the Canopy up during opening and “set” the Canopy down during closing. Today, they were treated with Alumiprep, Alodine and Akzo primer. They were not paint grey because eventually they will painted when the airplane is painted. Also shown below is the C-01405D Aft Canopy Frame Splice. It was also treated with Alumiprep, Alodine, Akzo primer and sprayed with grey paint.
Lastly, the Aft Canopy Frames were assembled. First, everything was clecoed together (along with the Aft Canopy Fixture) to check the initial fit. Then eight of the holes were final-drilled #40 and 10 holes were final-drilled #30. Once that was complete, they all got riveted together. This an overall view of the Assembly.....
.....and a close up of the Canopy Handle. Turned out pretty good I think.
