Today was a semi-milestone. The skirts have been glued with Sikaflex to the canopy. I started by running another line of tape over the existing final line on the canopy. I prepped both canopy and skirts with Sika 205 cleaner, then waited 10 minutes. Nancy and I each used a 1” wide brush to apply the 209 primer. She worked the inside of the skirts while I did the canopy. After application of the primer, there is a 30 minute wait time before adding the Sika 295 adhesive. After about 20 minutes the primer was dry, so I pulled off the first layer of tape from the canopy. I did this so we could see the edge of the underlying tape in order to get a consistent fillet—then waited another 10 minutes. I applied a thick bead of the adhesive to the inside of the skirts, while Nancy spread it out with a popsicle stick. We then lifted the skirts over the canopy and she held the back and left side so that it didn’t touch the canopy while I stuck in a cleco in the first hole on the right side. We then dropped the skirts into position and I added more clecoes. Then we began to smooth the excess adhesive at the top of the skirts to make a thin fillet between the skirts and canopy. We dipped a gloved finger in water to spread adhesive in making the fillet. After we were satisfied with the fillet, I pulled the tape from the canopy and then from the skirts. Results look good. Cleaned up all the mess from primer and adhesive and left the shop. I believe cure time is around 24 hours. Next, we’ll remove the canopy with skirts attached and add a cosmetic layer to the inside area, then pop rivet the skirts to the frame. May get done with this before month end after all.
Skirts ready for primer
Primer brushed on canopy
Filled not as wide as appears-this is very close up shot