The canopy frame is quite rigid,
and therefore it’s an easy job to
glue the clear canopy onto the
outside of it. Trim the canopy to
shape using small curved scis-
sors in a warm room to min-
imise the chance of cracking it.
Leave the bottom edge of the
clear canopy a little long, so it
extends past the base of the
canopy frame by about 1 mm.
Very carefully sand a narrow 5
- 6mm wide border all around
the clear canopy, on both the
inside and outside, with 400 or
600 grit sandpaper to provide a
good ‘key’ for the glue. Now,
holding the canopy frame
tightly inside the clear canopy
you can tack it in place with a
few
very small
drops of ‘odor-
less’ CA at the front and back
positions, and on the narrow
overlap that you left at the
sides when you trimmed it.
Work slowly, letting each drop
of CA cure fully before applying
the next one. Do NOT do this
with the canopy held upside
down - or the CA could run up
inside the canopy, and
don’t
use any Accelerator as the CA
will instantly turn white!
When the clear canopy is firmly secured onto the internal canopy frame all around, refit it to the
fuselage and gently sand away any of the overlap at the bottom as necessary so that it fits in the
correct position. Install the fuselage hatch that secures the canopy in place to check the fit.
The external fibreglass frame is supplied a little bit oversized, so it will extend past the bottom of
the canopy frame by 1 - 2mm. Do
not
trim this excess off before gluing it in position! It is
extremely
thin, and if you try to glue it on with CA, the heat produced when the glue cures will deform it - so
we recommend that you use a slow setting ‘white’ canopy glue, like the ZAP Formula 560. This can
be applied with a brush, the frame can be fitted in position - and then excess glue can be wiped
off with water before it cures. When cured this type of canopy glue is totally clear.
After it has totally cured (normally 24 hrs) you can carefully sand the overlap at the bottom to ob-
tain perfect fit to the fuselage, with a minimum gap.
Fox Composites Co., Ltd.
22
(above) The clear canopy is glued on the outside of the
canopy frame - we used Zap-O for this, but a high quality 30
minute epoxy is also OK.
(below) The thin external frame is glued onto the outside of
the canopy with white canopy glue, that dries clear. Pro-
duction frames are supplied a little bigger at the bottom, so
you can sand it as needed for a gap-less fit to the fuselage.
