Sikaflex followup
Hours: 1.8 | Posted in Canopy & FramePopped out the the shop after dinner to investigate the progress of the canopy. The Sika datasheet indicated that cure time for a 4mm bead at 50% RH would be around 24 hours, so I poked at it a bit and determined it looked safe to open the canopy. No problems there; it has set up quite nicely and appears to have a very firm grip on the plexi.
Unable to resist, I decided to futz with the thing, removing the spacers and cleaning up the Sika joints. True to what has been said by others, the Sika rubs right off plexi or bare aluminum where there is no primer applied. The interior paint is a different story, and the Sika appears to have a good grip on that too; this applies to the rear bow where I had to re-smooth the fillet after the skin pulled off. I’ll rub on it some more after the spacer gaps are filled in and the masking tape removed, but the worst case would be to sand down the smeared areas, mask the canopy, and re-spray the rear bow.
The front cleaned up better than I had hoped; the really awful parts were mostly on the bare plexi, so they peeled and rubbed off. The remainder actually looks pretty decent — a little bumpy in spots, and not perfect, but I’m much happier with it than I was last night.
As it sits now, the canopy is prepped for filling in the spacer gaps, so I will try to set the rear window and fill these gaps in one session, then fill the spacer gaps in the rear window in one final shot. I think I should be able to get all that with the remaining tube of sealant.
