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RobHickman(at)AOL.COM
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 Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:38 am Post subject: How to build the Windshield faring |
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One advantage of having the windows not bond the first time is I got to remake the front fairing with the help of my neighbor Jim Cullison that built an award winning Lancair. The made the first fairing using Van’s plans, laid up in place and I thought it looked really good after hours and hours of sanding.
Jim suggested we do it like Lancair; wet out the layers on the table and then transfer the 5 foot floppy mess to the windshield. After my experience with the Lancair window epoxy I was less than excited about using another Lancair inspired technique. After much discussion with my fellow RV-builder’s that had stopped by to check my progress we all decided it would never work. My wife Jennifer then informed the skeptical group that Jim had built a whole airplane out of fiberglass and he just might know what he is doing.
To my surprise “The Cullison Technique” worked fantastic, the faring looks great and took very little sanding.
Step 1
Use Blue masking tape to tape mark where the faring will be on the window and the top of the fuselage. The tape should be located where the faring will be. You can keep moving the tape until everyone agrees it looks good.
Step 2
Use 20 mil black pipe wrapping tape from Home Depot to layout the edge of the faring next to the masking tape. This black tape is really thick electrical tape, is very rugged and really works well.
Step 3
Remove the masking tape and aggressively sand the windshield and aluminum fuselage where the faring will bond to. The thick black tape really protects the window and fuselage faring edge. After sanding clean the aluminum with Acetone (do not get on window) and blow off the window with air.
Step 4
Build the bottom window fillet out of Epoxy and micro balloons; this should fill the joint between the windshield and fuselage making a smooth radius. We used slow cure hardener so that we would have lots of time.
Step 5
Lay a piece of thin clear plastic on a 6 foot table that is about 1 foot wide. Cut your first 3 layers of increasing widths of fiberglass cloth using a long ruler and a rotary cutter (we used 9 0z bias cloth, the woven fibers run diagonal so that it will curve ). The rotary cutter is a handle with a sharp wheel that makes the long cuts very easy (I found mine in Jennifer’s sewing supplies). Lay the strips of fiberglass in a stack with the widest on the bottom on the plastic. Pour a line of epoxy down the glass cloth and let it soak through the layers, you should add more resin to places that are not wetting out. Once the stack of cloth is wet out you should fold the plastic over the top of the stack and then using a hard roller you should roll the extra resin out of the stack.
Step 6
Using your long metal ruler as a guide and the rotary cutter trim both long edges of the fabric and plastic sandwich. You should only be trimming the edge of the bottom glass layer and the extra plastic and resin.
Step 7
Remove the top plastic layer from the stack and then using two people flip over the stack and carefully place it in the middle of the windshield-fuselage faring. Once we had it located fairly close we removed the top plastic layer and used a brush to push it in place and remove any bubbles.
Step 8
Repeat steps 5,6,7 for the next three layer stack. As long as the epoxy does not harden you can keep adding layers without sanding.
Step 9
Repeat steps 5,6,7 for the final one layer stack that will be used for the bottom fuselage edge. We trimmed the width to 2 ½” wide and carefully brushed it so it just touched the tape edge on the fuselage.
Step 10
Repeat steps 5,6,7 for the final one layer stack that will be used for the upper windshield edge. We trimmed the width to 2 ½” wide and carefully brushed it so it just touched the tape edge on the windshield.
Step 11
Press peelply on the top of the fairing so that it will leave a rough finish that you can add epoxy and micro balloons without having to sand. The peelply should be removed once the epoxy is cured.
We precut all the layers of cloth and in less than two hours I had a fairing that is going to take very little sanding and looks great.
Rob Hickman
N402RH RV-10 with Windows and a Fairing
Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars.
[quote][b]
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kearney(at)shaw.ca
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:47 pm Post subject: How to build the Windshield faring |
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Rob
Do you have any pictures (*I hope so*).
By the way, the last time I pilfered some of my wife’s sewing supplies to cut fibreglass, I was told in no uncertain terms that I would be neutered if I did it again. That was over 10 years ago, am I am still occasionally reminded of my transgression. Be warned!
Cheers
Les
From: owner-rv10-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-rv10-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of RobHickman(at)AOL.COM
Sent: June-30-08 1:29 PM
To: rv10-list(at)matronics.com
Subject: How to build the Windshield faring
One advantage of having the windows not bond the first time is I got to remake the front fairing with the help of my neighbor Jim Cullison that built an award winning Lancair. The made the first fairing using Van’s plans, laid up in place and I thought it looked really good after hours and hours of sanding.
Jim suggested we do it like Lancair; wet out the layers on the table and then transfer the 5 foot floppy mess to the windshield. After my experience with the Lancair window epoxy I was less than excited about using another Lancair inspired technique. After much discussion with my fellow RV-builder’s that had stopped by to check my progress we all decided it would never work. My wife Jennifer then informed the skeptical group that Jim had built a whole airplane out of fiberglass and he just might know what he is doing.
To my surprise “The Cullison Technique” worked fantastic, the faring looks great and took very little sanding.
Step 1
Use Blue masking tape to tape mark where the faring will be on the window and the top of the fuselage. The tape should be located where the faring will be. You can keep moving the tape until everyone agrees it looks good.
Step 2
Use 20 mil black pipe wrapping tape from Home Depot to layout the edge of the faring next to the masking tape. This black tape is really thick electrical tape, is very rugged and really works well.
Step 3
Remove the masking tape and aggressively sand the windshield and aluminum fuselage where the faring will bond to. The thick black tape really protects the window and fuselage faring edge. After sanding clean the aluminum with Acetone (do not get on window) and blow off the window with air.
Step 4
Build the bottom window fillet out of Epoxy and micro balloons; this should fill the joint between the windshield and fuselage making a smooth radius. We used slow cure hardener so that we would have lots of time.
Step 5
Lay a piece of thin clear plastic on a 6 foot table that is about 1 foot wide. Cut your first 3 layers of increasing widths of fiberglass cloth using a long ruler and a rotary cutter (we used 9 0z bias cloth, the woven fibers run diagonal so that it will curve ). The rotary cutter is a handle with a sharp wheel that makes the long cuts very easy (I found mine in Jennifer’s sewing supplies). Lay the strips of fiberglass in a stack with the widest on the bottom on the plastic. Pour a line of epoxy down the glass cloth and let it soak through the layers, you should add more resin to places that are not wetting out. Once the stack of cloth is wet out you should fold the plastic over the top of the stack and then using a hard roller you should roll the extra resin out of the stack.
Step 6
Using your long metal ruler as a guide and the rotary cutter trim both long edges of the fabric and plastic sandwich. You should only be trimming the edge of the bottom glass layer and the extra plastic and resin.
Step 7
Remove the top plastic layer from the stack and then using two people flip over the stack and carefully place it in the middle of the windshield-fuselage faring. Once we had it located fairly close we removed the top plastic layer and used a brush to push it in place and remove any bubbles.
Step 8
Repeat steps 5,6,7 for the next three layer stack. As long as the epoxy does not harden you can keep adding layers without sanding.
Step 9
Repeat steps 5,6,7 for the final one layer stack that will be used for the bottom fuselage edge. We trimmed the width to 2 ” wide and carefully brushed it so it just touched the tape edge on the fuselage.
Step 10
Repeat steps 5,6,7 for the final one layer stack that will be used for the upper windshield edge. We trimmed the width to 2 ” wide and carefully brushed it so it just touched the tape edge on the windshield.
Step 11
Press peelply on the top of the fairing so that it will leave a rough finish that you can add epoxy and micro balloons without having to sand. The peelply should be removed once the epoxy is cured.
We precut all the layers of cloth and in less than two hours I had a fairing that is going to take very little sanding and looks great.
Rob Hickman
N402RH RV-10 with Windows and a Fairing
Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars.
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Jim Berry
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 237
Location: Denver
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:24 pm Post subject: Re: How to build the Windshield faring |
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Rob,
I used the same technique as you, with only 2 minor changes. I was concerned about the flox that forms the fillet at the bottom of the windscreen pushing through to the interior and creating an irregular edge, so I took a length of 3/8" round weather strip which I coated with mold release wax, and worked it into the angle between the inside of the windscreen and the glare shield with a paint stir stick. When the flox was cured I pulled the weather strip out, leaving a nice rounded contour at the bottom of the windscreen.
Also I had seen several -10's with a bulge at the ends of the windscreen fairing, caused by the 10 layers of glass called for. For the first 6 layers I cut back the ends 1" per layer so they were staggered. The top 4 layers are full length. This was enough to eliminate the bulge, and made it much easier to fair to the front edge of the door.
Jim Berry
40482
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