Canopy & spinner
Hours: 4.0 | Posted in Canopy & Frame, Cowling & BafflesFinished the canopy skirts by stripping off the excess Sikaflex that oozed out of the joint and riveting the skirts in place. All rivets were easily squeezed except five, which were bucked. One of the nice things about Sikaflex versus something like Proseal is that, while it sticks with vigor to any properly primed surface, it doesn’t stick to things not coated with Sika primer; so it’s easy to not worry about the ooze-out, and once it has cured, just scrape or rub it off. Cleaned all the dust off the canopy frame & underside.
Pulled out the prop and various related pieces — spinner, bulkheads, spacer, crush plate — and set to work making the blade cutouts in the spinner. Measuring, making cardboard templates, and cutting, then shaping with a file, followed by lots of iterative fitting and filing, was the order of the day. Got it to the point where it fits, though the cutouts will need to be cleaned up for a consistent gap width.