Aircraft Canopy - Bonding with Sikaflex

[@antoinecarrier5278]

greatest tutorial out there, will do that on my Thorp t-18!

[@RoyBenAnat]

If I had this beautiful tutorial I would chose Sika... As always thank you for the great info!

[@titanhank1]

Thanks. I was just reading about the process while planning a canopy replacement.

[@stusaircraftfactory6592]

I have 2 cans of sikaflex for the canopy. One each of primer and cleaner is enough.

[@antoinecarrier5278]

how much consummable did you use for your canopy? Like was one tube of 295, 250 ml of primer and 250 ml of activator was enough?

[@timrosser9789]

How do you bond the top of the skirt? If the canopy is riveted, the top of the skirt is riveted. With the Sika, it's that top edge I'm not sure about. The lower portion of the skirt I can see gets riveted.

[@DaveGFlying]

Thank you so much for the how to videos. You said you flipped it over to do the topside of the frame. How did you fit the sika tube with the curvature of the canopy? Also, was it 2 weeks of sitting? One for the bottom before moving and then the flip?

[@stusaircraftfactory6592]

Flip it right away and then let it sit for a week. You can get most of the canopy frame with the standard gun. At the very front and back you will have to squeeze some sika in there and then spread it with pop sickle stick or similar. This is where masking tape helps a lot because it’s easy to make a mess

[@mashednz]

Is that a sneak peek at the new project right at the end there ?

[@stusaircraftfactory6592]

No that’s b-roll from long ago :)

[@tbone1212]

I was thinking about using Sika Flex on the 4 canopy , I believe I will give it a go. Question , do you fill the cleko holes with sika flex .

[@stusaircraftfactory6592]

It never hurts. I definitely fill in gap where spacer was but the hole itself is less critical