Fitting the canopy

[Tony4aro]

Hi All,

I haven't worked on my Sonex (Waiex) in a while. My father passed recently, and it's been hard to find motivation when I'm home alone. But last week, my cousin has been coming over, and making me work on it. LOL. Last friday, we built the canopy frame, and fit the windshield in place. So my question to the group is.... should I drill the canopy bows first? Or.... should I just mark the bolt locations, and then drill the canopy to the marks.... then come back to drill the bows?? My only thought is.... I need to make sure the holes are drilled center on the bows, so I don't want to mess them up. Any insight would be appreciated.

[Bryan Cotton]

Tony,
My condolences on your loss. Good that your cousin has your back though.

I drilled and tapped the bow first. The great thing about the windshield is that you can see through it. And those holes should be loose in the lexan. The flush washers should contact the flat surface and not be tight in the countersink. I made a wooden tool to help me align the drill, I'll look for the picture.

[Bryan Cotton]

My memory was a little off. Here is how I really did it:

Here is the tool I made. Super simple.

bow drill jig.jpg (51.85 KiB) Viewed 733 times

I used the tool to mark the location by drilling just a little. Then I drilled through the bow using a V block on the drill press.

drill bow through.jpg (48.31 KiB) Viewed 733 times

Then I took a dulled #30 and transferred the hole through the windshield. Or you can use a real lexan drill bit.

clecoed windshield.jpg (63.53 KiB) Viewed 733 times

[Tony4aro]

Thanks for the pics. I was thinking more about the canopy bows. Did you use the same method?

[Bryan Cotton]

Tony,
I sent you a PM. I have a couple emails I can forward.

[Tony4aro]

Tony,
I sent you a PM. I have a couple emails I can forward.

Thanks for the info !!