Scott & Tanya Card RV9A build log (N4822C)

After the project visit this weekend, I was ready to build. I got to work on the gas strut mounts. Fabricating little parts like this is fun. After those were all mounted I put the frame back on the fuselage and hooked up the gas struts. Canopy goes up, canopy comes down. Super duper cool! Ok, so it isn’t rocket science, but it sure felt like a big milestone. I’m still amazed at how much work is going into fitting and making all of this canopy stuff work.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

I set the canopy on the frame again and marked a line almost 1/4″ forward of the front edge on the top skin. I taped off the line and masked the whole rest of the frame. I scuffed the skin real well and primed it with GP-988 primer. Once the primer was set, I painted it with Rustoleum flat black. It came out looking great. Not too difficult.

 

  

  

 

We finished riveting the canopy frame together without messing up any of the paint. It looks pretty good. As I was getting ready to pick it up and do a test fit on the fuselage, I realized that I forgot to put the little shims that I made in between the skin and frame. Major bummer. I did a test fit, and yep, it needs the shims. I left it and came back to it the next day and drilled out four rivets on each side of the forward frame in order to get the shims in. The next trick was bucking those rivets now. Note that the frame brace structure is covering the inside of the frame. I did some creative manipulation (grinding) of various heavy objects (bucking bars). You could call the maneuver “micro bucking bar on a stick”! The new rivets are in with the shims and the fit is definitely better.

We brought the canopy back out for final fitting to the frame. It needs a little more sanding up at the front to accommodate some slight shape change of the frame and skin after riveting.

After painting the canopy frame parts the other day, we got to do some riveting this evening. I jigged the frame up on the bench and Tanya and I got to it. She shot, I bucked. We got most of the forward rivets done. It has been quite a while since we have shot any rivets. It was fun, just like old pros.

I received an order from ACS the other day that included some .016 aluminum sheet. It showed up mangled on the edge.

 

  

  

  

 

Yesterday I washed the canopy frame parts. Today we primed them. Tanya even came out to help. She thinks she wants a painted frame with unpainted rivets. I’m going to give it a shot and see if I can pull that off. It was way too windy for shooting primer outside but I did it anyway :). I’m sure half of what I sprayed was carried away in the wind. The end result came out just fine anyway. Tomorrow I’ll start shooting paint (spray can) on all of the parts before riveting. This could be a big disaster (the whole paint/rivet thing) but we’ll see. It is just paint, I know how to patch that up if need be.

After washing parts yesterday, I drilled the little side brackets to the forward side decks that the instrument panel mounts to. Next up on the instrument panel mounting is to chop off both of the center mounting ribs and relocate them further inboard to clear the EFIS displays.