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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date: 8-14-2016
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Number of Hours: 6.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Glareshield painting and windscreen attachment
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After I left the hangar yesterday I went to the store and bought several grades of wet dry sandpaper and a can of…truck bed liner paint. It turns out that several builders have successfully solved the glareshield challenge by using that as a covering since it has some texture and a relatively flat sheen. After getting to the hangar and getting out a spray bottle, I started the process of wet sanding the paint from yesterday. It actually started to look pretty good, and I think if I had stayed with it (and had enough paint left) I probably could have made “Plan A” work. While I waited for the glareshield to dry, I tried some of the truck bed paint on a piece of scrap metal and suddenly “Plan B” was underway. Two quick coats with the truck bed paint and the job was done. Who knew?
After finishing up the painting, I spent a little while getting the canopy brace in place and bolted, then finished up tapping the holes in the roll bar. I got about five countersink holes in the windscreen a little deeper than I wanted, so while I was tapping the 6-32 screws, I enlarged the five holes in the roll bar and tapped them to take an 8-32 screw. Once that was all finished, I attached the windscreen to the roll bar. With all of that done, I had to fabricate some clips to hold the front and sides down more snugly against the fuselage. The windscreen tended to bulge a little along the lower sides, so I decided to make two clips for each side to make it a little more secure. Since these clips attach at a place where they can be seen inside the cockpit, I used #6 screws so that the nuts and washers would give it a little more finished look—otherwise there would be four pulled rivets visible…not a good look.
The final step for the windscreen will be to actually bond it in place to the fuselage with epoxy and fiberglass, but that will wait for another day. My plan now is to finish up the canopy work while it is still hot here, and then it will be time to go back and get some more wiring done.
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You might be a redneck if you use truck bed liner paint on your airplane...
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Windshield screwed in place
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Attachment clips in place
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