Panel Switches & Canopy Sika

 I need to catch up from the last coupe of days of work.  I cut out the second big hole for the MFD, squared it up to the first one, and drilled the screw holes.  With that, all of the major cutouts are made in the panel.  I still have to drill the holes for the switches, the future GPS (once I figure out the size) and the ELT control panel.

I pulled out all of my switches and did an inventory to make sure I have what I need.  I think I do, but that usually means I'm one short of something.  All of the main power types of switches will be grouped to the left of the PFD.  All of the lights and other "in flight" kinds of switches will be in the center below the center stack.

I wasn't sure what spacing would work best for the switches, so I did a quick mockup.  The military standard is apparently about 1" between switches, and that felt fine.

I've been putting off gluing the canopy down for far too long, so today was the day to finally get it done.  I cleaned all of the edges and applied the Sika primer, then let it dry for about 30 minutes.

The canopy was primed, as well as the frame itself.

After the primer dried, I ran a bead of Sika 295 UV around the perimeter of the frame, and Rose came out to help me drop the canopy in place.  With it on, I put Sika on the side skirt pieces and clecoed them on.  Just to try to snug the side skirts up as much as possible, I put a few ratchet straps on.  On the advice of others, I ran an extra line of Sika around the front of the canopy.  The purpose is simply to help fill in the gap that exists so you have to do a little less filling with fiberglass.  Sika sands very easily once it's dried, so there was no reason to make this portion neat, especially since I was on the clock to get the rest done before the Sika started to skin over (60 min).

I climbed inside and smoothed out all of the squeeze out.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go fast enough to pull all of the tape before the Sika started to skin over.  So my nice fillets got pulled up and turned kind of ugly.  I'm not sure what I'll do to clean up the look.  I will let the canopy stay in place for a few days, then take it off to get a better look at the inside.  With it off I can probably beautify it a little easier.