First up while the layup was curing was to make a 7″ radius sanding tool. I had a 4×4 piece of lumber that I ripped to be the same length as the width of the layup.. Then I marked the radius from the metal tool I had made onto the side. It took me a couple of tries to figure out how exactly to mark it (as you can see) in order to have it end up being correct. I then cut it out on my bandsaw and compared to me template.

I used this tool with 50 grit sandpaper glued on initially to sand the shape across the front. The shape is mostly flat as you approach the sides where the leading edge of the door is. In between the front center and the extreme edges, the contour continually changes making it hard to sand. I ended up using the 7″ radius block I had made angled at about 45 degrees and occasionally used circular motions as well. I feel like it worked well.

The idea here is there are 2 layers of electrical tape on the windscreen and the metal fuselage. You continue to sand until you’re just scuffing the surface of the top layer of tape. Once that happens, you take the top-most layer of tape off and continue sanding with finer grit until you start scuffing the bottom layer. This will help create a feathered edge onto the mating surfaces. Once I was done with sanding (several days worth.. ) I started to fill some low spots with epoxy and micro.

Once satisfied with the overall shape, you start to put a skim coat of epoxy down to seal up the final part and fill any pinholes. A very similar process to what I used to finish the overhead console. I used a squeegee and a foam roller to get good coverage and left it to cure overnight.

Once done, I pulled off the tape to see the result.. Here is a shot along the left side.

A view from the inside where you can see the really nice black line all the way around the base of the windscreen. Very happy with how this turned out!

I still have some touchup to do along the feathered edges and then I will be using some high-build primer to paint the fairing. I’ll leave it that way until paint.

The next part of this process is to do a fiberglass layup along the base of the windscreen and the metal fuselage. To start, you mark the boundaries of the fairing area with high quality electrical tape. For the boundary along the plexiglass, I used my 7″ radius tool to mark where it hit the plexiglass along the center and front areas. I also did that along the sides, but the curve starts changing from an inside radius to flat along the sides. So I sat inside and looked at it visually and adjusted it a little bit downwards until I got something that I thought was visually desirable. In order to make sure the fairing is at an equal height on both sides, I made a template aligned with the skin seam to mark the same location on both sides. Making sure to be as close to 90 degrees as possible to the joggle/Silpruf line I just finished.

I then marked the line around the bottom part of the fairing on the metal fuselage. I came back approx 2″ from the base of the Plexiglas, but ended up adjusting the sides downward a bit later on.

Everything was then sanded very well with 50 grit sandpaper to ensure proper bonding. I then cleaned the surface really well with distilled alcohol until no sanding residue came off. Next up was to mix up epoxy and micro to fill the gap at the base of the windscreen. I tinted this mixture with black tint. Another hint I got was to paint the insides of the clips that hold the windscreen in place black too, which I had done prior to riveting them in place. As the curve flattens out on the sides, more micro was added downwards to blend the the two surfaces.

Then I sanded the micro mixture down the next day after it cured. There were a couple of low spots mostly along the sides, so I added a little more and sanded the remainder the next day.

Once the micro was sanded down I re-looked at the gap needing to be filled with fiberglass.

I decided to follow the video series that Van’s put together for the RV-14 here: https://www.vansaircraft.com/faq/canopy-fiberglass-fairing-how-to-video-series/. There are a couple of main differences between the videos and the RV-10 plans. First off the RV-10 plans have you start with small strips of glass and work your way to bigger and bigger strips. The RV-14 videos start with a layer of glass the goes the full width of the tape and it is also tinted so that it produces a completely opaque layer so all you’ll see from the inside is solid black where the layup is. Then the rest is done proceeding with narrow strips to wider strips until you get close to the edge of the first layer. This should create a nice feathered edge. One other slight difference is that the RV-14 videos show a couple of different large side pieces of glass that are cut somewhat on the bias. I cut these too and used them in a similar fashion to the videos.

The RV-14 videos refer to paper templates that come in the plans.. Well since there is no such thing for the 10, I ended up making templates for the first layer in 4 sections.

I then got to cutting the first layer of glass per my templates, two of the larger side pieces per another template I made.. along with smaller side pieces (about 1″ smaller in all dimensions compared to the larger side piece) along with all of the the glass strips called out in the plans.. Adding a couple of 3 ft. 1/4″ strips too. I setup the bench to cut the glass with a craft fabric cutting board underneath along with a rotary cutter, which made fast work of the cuts.

I then mixed up epoxy with the black tint and applied it to the faring area. One thing I noted is that it wasn’t very dark like I saw on the videos. I pressed on all the while thinking something wasn’t right, but figured it might darken up when it cures.. I followed the videos instructions for wetting out the first layers sandwiched in plastic wrap with the tinted resin. I cut them down to size with the templates and placed them into position using a brush to make sure there were minimal air bubbles underneath.

After the layer cured.. I just wasn’t happy. I knew I should have stopped when the resin applied to the windscreen was not thick and opaque like in the videos. Below you can see how translucent the first layer really was.. I talked with another builder who followed this process and a similar thing happened to him too. He also has a friend who has something similar and left it this way and is very unhappy with the results.. The bottom line is the videos depict that there isn’t much tint needed when you mix it up with the epoxy, when in fact I felt like I had to pour half my bottle in to get it to the thickness and opaqueness I desired… Thankfully it’s fiberglass and can be fixed… So I spent a few sessions over the next few days sanding away the layer along the window until I got back down to plexi again. Lesson learned… I didn’t bother sanding the layer on the metal too much other than to rough it up for adhering to the next layer.

Now with the proper tint to epoxy mixture, I recut some glass from slightly modified templates and applied a new first layer to the windscreen area overlapping somewhat with the existing first layer on the metal.

Then I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures as you’re working with the pre-cut glass strips, placing them into position and wetting them out with a brush and straight epoxy. Here I was getting close to 8 glass layers in place as I’m wetting out this piece. I also ran back to the cutting table and cut some smaller strips needed as I went along. It was a repetitive process of looking at things with the template and occasionally adding some small strips to build up some areas prior to adding the next wider piece for the next layer. I did do some adjustments along the sides too as there was a slight drop off from the plexiglass layer to the metal.I used small strips of cloth to raise that level up before adding some wider sections to finish off the sides and hopefully I’ll end up with a flat surface in that area.

As I approached done.. a Final check of the 7″ radius template shown below pretty close to perfect.

The final step is to brush epoxy on and apply peel ply to finish it off.

So now this will cure for a couple days. Then I will be sanding it down with a 7″ radius sanding block across the front and other blocks along the sides. More on that and filling in any low spots on the next post..

I’ve also started working on the wheels/landing gear section while I’m waiting for this to cure… Next major step is to get this puppy on gear! That’ll be a huge milestone!

A couple of pics of all 4 side windows now done with the front right window curing.

It was then time to start on the windscreen. It was masked off to help protect the plexiglass from getting scratched. Then began the process of trimming. Not too much trimming was needed with the Cee Baileys windows and this one was no exception. I marked the centerline of the fuselage and the window at both the top and bottom to make sure I was always putting it in basically the same position before each marking and trim session. I did trim some off of the front to tilt the window downwards a bit and alleviate the bottom corners bulging outward due to the plexiglass hitting the curved part of the upper forward fuselage. Once I was satisfied with that and made sure that the plexiglass was entirely sitting on the aluminum, I moved on to trim the top. This was solely to create the 3/16” gap which will follow the same Silpruf method as the side windows.

Then I fabricated clips to hold the bottom part of the windscreen in place and put them approx 12” apart along the bottom edge of the windscreen.

I then installed the Sulpruf standoffs along the joggle and made sure everything was masked around the window.

I then prepped the inside of the top part of the windscreen just like the windows with masking and eventually a boundary layer of Silpruf 12-24 hours ahead of putting the window in. I was a little conservative with the bead of Silpruf I put along the joggle, but wanted to have too much rather than too little. As Zach says in the videos: “ I’d rather you be an overgluer than an undergluer. “

The whole masking process of the inside of the window produces a really nice black “line” along the window joggle once the window is in and the tape is pulled.

Next up is to do the bottom interface between the plexiglass and the fuselage. This will be a fiberglass layup mostly following the plans, but I have watched the instructional videos the Van’s has put out on the RV-14, and I’m planning to do it more that way. It’s just a slightly different way to layup the fiberglass with the use of tinted fiberglass the full width of the layup as the first layer. This will provide a very uniform line along the base of the windscreen as you look at it from the inside. To start the process, I made a 7” radius tool to mark the upper bounds of the layup on the plexiglass. More on that fairing on the next post.

I decided quite awhile ago that I wasn’t going to follow the plans for the window install. The main reason is the plans have you bonding the windows in with adhesive and then using fiberglass cloth over the gap between the plexiglass and the fuselage. With all the differing materials expanding and contracting differently, this fiberglass area is prone to cracking, even if done perfectly. I became aware of another process that other builders have been using and is outlined in a 5 part YouTube series here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A336SG-fsiI&t=405s . It is used quite extensively in the Glastar/Sportsman series of aircraft and involves using a silicon based Silpruf adhesive. This is the same stuff that is used to hold windows in skyscrapers. Hopefully it’ll be good enough for my lowly RV-10. 🙂

I spent a fair amount of time ordering supplies after watching the videos and taking notes. I began by fabricating a scribe tool from the cap of a wet erase marker. Fortunately my wife had a hot-glue gun, so one less tool to have to buy… 🙂 The idea here is to cut the cap so the pen fits in snug and have the tip of the wooden piece I cut from a popsicle stick be about 3/16″. This tool will be used to follow the indent of the window joggle and the wet erase marker will mark a line 3/16″ away on the window setting the visual gap you will have.

Below you can see the scribe line on one of the rear windows and the angle grinder used to trim the window with sandpaper. It’s helpful to have a white background while doing this to bring out the black line as you’re sanding, so I bought a white blanket and threw a white sheet on the floor.

Probably the hardest time I had was finding the right stuff for the using the angle grinder. I ended up buying a 5″ Phenolic disc from my local auto parts store similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW4950-5-Inch-Phenolic-Disc/dp/B00004RHAW. I also bought 5″ circular 80 grit sandpaper with adhesive backing. Then I needed to figure out the adapter I needed to hold the phenolic disc on and be flat. I ended up buying this and it worked great! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A8NM8O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Below you can see the uniform gap left between the edge of the trimmed window and window joggle.

After sanding the edge of the window to get rid of any marks from the sanding process along with putting a radius on the outer edge of the window, #40 holes were drilled along the edges of the window to hold wing-nut clecos with wooden bridges spanning the gap holding the window in place.

Once that is done, a sharpie is used to mark the outer edge of the window in the joggle. This will later be used as a line to mask to with tape. Additionally, the inside of the window was marked with a wet erase marker along the joggle edge. That line will be used to apply a specific masking tape pattern to the inside of the window.

Next up was to mask the inside of the window. This starts with a 1″ blue tape which is kept approx 3/16″ from the line. Then 1/4″ masking tape is used to mask as close to the line as possible without covering the wet-erase line at all. Once satisfied, the line is wiped away with a slightly damp cloth. A second application of 1/4″ tape is applied over the first with an overlap.

The front edge of the window was covered in 2″ tape and back-cut with a razor blade. Additional tape was added to cover up any exposed glass.

After masking to the line in the window joggle and adding a bunch of extra tape (this is due to the Silpruf being silicone and if it gets on the surface of the plane it can cause fisheyes in the paint. So extra precautions were taken.) I got to placing previously Silpruf standoffs around the perimeter of the window. A few days prior, I had run beads of Silpruf out on some scrap metal and let them cure. I used Permatex ultra black gasket maker to adhere these standoffs to the window joggle. Once those cured, I took the window, put it in place, and progressively trimmed the standoffs down in groups of 3-4 at a time until the window was flush (or as flush as possible) with the fuselage.

While this picture is after the window is in, it depicts how I used the razor blade to check to flush to fuselage.

Then when you are ready to install the window, you must lay down a bead of Silpruf on the exposed area of the window and spread it out with your finger. This is referred to as the boundary layer. The first 1/4″ tape is pulled leaving the second 1/4″ tapes edge clean and a small gap between this boundary layer and the tape. This must be done 12-24 hours ahead of actually installing the window so it has some time to partially cure.

Then after 12-24 hours have elapsed, you spread a small amount of Silpruf to fill in that gap left. Put a generous bead of Silpruf on the window joggle so it’ll cover the entire width of the joggle with some squeeze out. The window is then put into position, cleaning of the squeeze out is done with an approx 1″ wide squeegee and clecos are inserted all around. Additional cleanup is done between the clecos. Then the tape around the perimeter of the window that was placed to the previously marked line was removed. Each cleco was taken out and the wooden bridge was flipped to avoid getting any Silpruf on the fuselage part of the airplane. There is some additional work to spread out the squeeze out on the inside of the window, culminating with the removal of that last 1/4″ tape. Below is a picture after the left rear window was completed. It’ll now sit for several days, of which I kept the garage heat on for the first 2 days.

Seeing I only really have enough clecos for 1 window at a time (and maybe I’m going a bit overboard with the 30-ish clecos I do have) I really want to have a good bond for these things, so it’s worth the extra few days of waiting for one window to cure prior to installing the next one. In the meantime, I’m trimming and getting the front windows ready for install.

Based on my schedule, I left the first window cure for 5 days prior to removing the clecos and moving on to installing the right rear window. Here you can see the finished results, which are a very nice black line around the permitter of the window, which is ascetically pleasing. After paint, the gap will be filled in with Silpruf forming the final look, but that is still quite a ways away.

Below you can see the right rear window is now installed and curing.

In the meantime, I’ve managed to get the front left door window all prepped and masked off. The Joggle is masked and standoffs are in place and trimmed. All that’s left is to install the window once I’m comfortable removing the clecos from the rear right window once it’s fully cured.

This process will be repeated for the front door windows, then it’ll be onto the windscreen, which is going to be part this process and part laying up a fiberglass base. More on that as I get to it.

Once a consistent gap of approx 1/8″ was achieved all around the perimeter of the doors, I utilized 1/8″ adhesive foam tape to finish off the gap. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XCK65QM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This foam tape was stuck to the edge of the door and a key point was to cover the exposed edges on both sides with packing tape so it releases from the door after the micro dries.

I then slathered up both sides of the tape with micro. I might have gone a little overboard here… Most of this get sanded off in the end.

After sanding was completed, it provided a very nice and consistent gap all the way around the door. It also helped fix some spots where the door was ever so slightly above the surface of the cabin top or fuselage. This was mostly in the pillars around the windows/windscreen.

The process was replicated on the left side along with micro’ing over the fiberglass strip covering the small gap between the cabin top and fuselage.

Once all the micro was sanded and I was happy. I moved on to painting the doors. I followed the same process that I did for the overhead. A black PPG DPLF epoxy primer coat followed by PPG K36 high build primer. I did 2 rounds of that after fixing a couple of minor imperfections that really showed through after some paint on it. That was followed by an application of PPG Omni sealer, then 4 coats of the Oxford White base coat. The final step was to use the same Eastwood matte clear coat that I used on the overhead. Hopefully the clear coat will help protect a bit with all the wear and tear these things will endure. Below are some various shots of the doors the latter ones being the completed ones. It’s always hard to take pictures during this process. After the DPLF primer, I’ve basically only got enough time to clean up the gun and get ready for the next coat to be put on while it’s still wet.

In between paint sessions I spent some time doing some odd and ends like attaching the rudder cable fairings and rear NACA vents with Proseal. I also drilled some holes and riveted on nut plates to accept #6 screws on the bottom cowl plates I added to the firewall some time back. Lots of progress!

I got started by using a laser level to find the optimal position for the center of the door strut brackets. The end result might have been a little different than this line as I found the brackets tended to want to sit cocked aft and not want to be straight up and down to connect to the center of the rivet pattern (and where there’s a metal backing plate bonded in the door). I also inserted a washer under the right side door to get it to sit the way I wanted it.

I ordered an aftermarket strut from Bansbach Easylift. The part number was B0N0F50-100-247/XXXN with a 550 newton force. The extra oomph is needed with the extra weight of the Planearound 3rd latch kit so far out on the door as it swings up. I read a bunch of posts on which ends to get and ended up going with 2 E2, M8’s for the door attachment and 2 B1, M8’s for the strut bracket side. The trouble with the B1, M8’s is they are too thick to go into the 3/8″ opening of the strut bracket. I knew this going into it, but read that you can sand them down to fit. Which is what I did, but I still would need to sand more to get the proper washers on either side of the eye. I decided to buy a couple more E2, M8’s to make things 1000% easier. These are 25mm each and the overall length of both plus the gas strut itself is very close to the stock Van’s setup.

You then fabricate a locating bar out of 1/8″ thick material to locate the brackets on the door. I got this bar attached to the strut bracket and matched drilled the holes into the doors.

Then I clecoed the bracket to the door for now and what do you know. The door stands on its own!! Below are shots of a couple of different angles.

And a short video to show the operation of the doors.

Now it’s onto fitting the overhead console and taking the top off and finishing the insides of both the doors and cabin top on the bench.

Like many others, the bottom lip of the door was greater than 1/4″ from the inner door skin. In order to get a decent seal along that edge, I had to build up the edge. I mixed up some Epoxy with Flox and Cabo and applied it to the lip. I also had one section of the top of the left door that I sanded a little too much and needed to build it back up too. I then took some 1/4″ cardboard all wrapped with packing tape to fill the gap between the door and the lip and create the perfect gap. Any squeeze out was wiped away. I then left it overnight to cure.

The end result was pretty good.

I then took a bunch of time to sand the inside portion of the lips to make sure it was as close to the 3/16″ grip width for the seal. Because the lip was pretty thin in several spots, I did decide to fill each seal with a flox/cabo mix made relatively thick and push it onto the edge of the door to create a perfect shape for the seal to adhere to. I bought 50′ of seal material, so I used one set for this step, and the other half for the final seal to be used for each door. I had just enough to do this.

I was pretty happy with how the edge turned out. I then spent some time sanding the raised area around the perimeter of the seal that resulted and replaced the seal on both doors with new sections. Now it’s onto the door struts. Won’t need to keep holding the door up with a piece of PVC for much longer.