Canopy Side Rails
The past 2 days were spent on the canopy side rails. A lot of match drilling, fluting, hand bending and countersinking involved. And there's 2 of everything since the canopy has 2 side rails. Hand bending of the thick canopy rail sides was needed to match the exterior fuselage contour. The plans recommended using the roll bar assembly as a tool to create the bends. That worked but I made much better progress using a smaller diameter Home Depot bucket. I got the contours very close this way.
Initial assembly of the side rails. I primed them since these pieces had no Alclad.
The bucket has just the right diameter and give to finesse in the needed bend.
Lots of drilling and countersinking. A couple beefy angles needed significant fluting to straighten them as well.
Material was .063" thick so getting the right bend took some work.
The left rail on the left cockpit sill.
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This post is from Scott's RV-14 Build
