Date:	1-11-2014
Number of Hours:	2.50
Brief Description:	Fastening canopy
Added 3 coats of clear coat paint to the vertical tail tip. No photos. - So tonight was the big night of starting to fasten the canopy. It was also the night I joined the "cracked canopy club." On the up-side, it was only one crack, and it's small. - With the canopy temporarily cleco'd in place I looked at the final fit. - There were a few places where the canopy material was too tight to the adjacent structure, so I trimmed the canopy edges in a few locations, followed by sanding smooth. - I started riveting (aluminum rivets, per the plans) at the hinge-side. With the clecos in place I started at the forward end of the hinge half and worked back. - The technique was to insert the rivet fully, then press the plexi canopy as hard as I dared, against the canopy frame, and then squeezed the riveter. I used the hand riveter. No need or sense using the air-powered rivet gun for these soft aluminum rivets. Besides, you get a better feel with the hand riveter. - Some of the hole were not aligning perfectly. There are 3 pieces you are going through: hinge half, plexi canopy, and aluminum canopy frame. So I was pushing the rivets in, harder than I should have been.At the 5th rivet... - CRACK! I heard a low crack and looked down to see a crack extending from that rivet, out above the hinge half (photo 3). Dammit! - I immediately got my smallest plexi drill bit and stop-drilled the crack (photo 3). Then I tried to recover from disappointment, mainly in myself. - So I took my rivet-sized plexi bit, and carefully drilled through all 3 pieces of material at each hole. The holes in the 3 pieces were really almost perfect, but the slight misalignment was enough. So the drill served to just dress up the slight offset to easily accept the rivet. - From then on all the rivets on both sides of the canopy went in fine. - I'll put a little clear silicone in the stop-drill hole and just chalk it up to experience.