RV-7 N890GF

Today I had two goals: rivet the side skirts, and install the rear window. I began by removing all the clamps and half the clecos. I then installed the appropriate rivets and used my squeezer to knock those out. I had to use longer rivets in a couple places where I used washers to get the appropriate spacing. I couldn’t reach the aft two rivets on either side with my squeezer, so I used the rivet gun. I also riveted the canopy handle to the pilots side of the canopy.

I then began prepping the rear window and aft skin for bonding. Same process as before. I wiped down all the mating surfaces with the Sika Activator, waited 10 minutes and then primed all the surfaces.

Originally I was going to use short pieces of teflon coated wire as spacers for the rear window and then remove them after the glue sets (described by Bruce here) , but decided to use small pieces of 1/8″ thick rubber. These were small enough and dense enough that they could be placed on the rollbar and completely encased in the SikaFlex.

I then applied a bead of SikaFlex to the rollbar and to the rear window. Installing the window was a big of a challenge, and it did get quite messy, but i got everything aligned and clamped (I wish I had 4 more clamps).

Another idea I stole from Bruce was the rear window aft supports. I fabricated a similar support and it worked great to hold the aft part of the window up against the interior of the fuselage skin. Once things set up a bit, I removed the masking tape and cleaned up all the edges.