Fitting windshield
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:13 am
by Murray Parr
Anyone out there fitted the B model windshield yet? I am having a hec of a time trying to get it to line up with the skirt. Any advice would be appreciated
Cheers
Murray WXB 0015
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 8:41 am
by jowens
The sonex flight podcast mentioned fitting the windscreen on your work bench rather than on the airplane.
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:44 pm
by Murray Parr
Thanks Jim,
Is there any further info about it in that podcast? If so, where can I find the link?
That’s the second time I have read that it should be done on the bench but the plans call for it to be done in the plane. Would be interesting to see if anyone has done it on the bench first and how well it fit back in the plane.
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:52 pm
by sonex1374
Murry,
You can find that discussion in Episode 42 “Flying the B-Model”. Leroy Brandt mentioned that he fit the skirt on the plane and it did not work. He had to make a custom skirt. He said the factory guys told him to fit it flat on the bench, and that if he did it over he would have done it that way.
Jeff
Fitting windshield
Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 9:59 pm
by n307tw
Murray,
How did you mount the glareshield, is there an easier way? I’m having a dickens of a time trying to get underneath to drill the glareshield into the longerons. There is literally no room for the drill by the rudder pedal brackets. Any suggestions you have is appreciated.
-Tim
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Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 2:51 am
by Murray Parr
Tim,
Do you have the rudder pedals installed? I had no problems with drilling the glare shield to the longerons, however, I had the fire wall off, and used a tight fit angled drill. If you don’t have access to one of those, you could try using a long drill bit and use the bit of flex in the bit to help drill the hole square. I won’t be riveting the fire wall on until I am finished most of that area under the glare shield. Take the rudder pedals out would help too
Hope this helps
Murray
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:06 am
by Murray Parr
Jeff,
Thanks for that.
Kerry from Sonex Tech support suggested I use towels between the glare shield and windshield to push the wind shield up into position for drilling. I have also been in contact with Leroy and got a few pointers from him also. I am going to try a combination of both methods as I am concerned if I drill it flat on the bench the holes will be in the wrong radius when I bend it all into position. My thinking is, start on a flat bench and drill around the fuel cap opening and 3 holes either side before the windshield starts to curve more. This should at least get the windshield into the correct forward/aft/centered position before drilling the rest of it in place. If I still can’t push it into position I will have to remove it again and drill more around the curve. I will let you all know after next weekend how this goes. If anybody else has fitted one some more feedback would still be of great help.
Murray
Fitting windshield
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:06 am
by n307tw
Thanks for the tip Murray. I unfortunately have the floor riveted and the firewall is riveted in place along with the Aerovee turbo hanging off the front. So I guess there is no real good way to get this glare-shield drilled and cleco’d in place without contouring my body and getting in there. Guess I took the plans a wee bit too literally going by the book. If I have to take the rudder plates and pedals out I will but I was trying not to disconnect anything but I’ll try the tight drill first and I was thinking maybe cutting down the drill bits as well to get in there. Thanks again.
-Tim
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Fitting windshield
Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2018 9:47 am
by Lbrandt
Murray Parr wrote:Tim,
Do you have the rudder pedals installed? I had no problems with drilling the glare shield to the longerons, however, I had the fire wall off, and used a tight fit angled drill. If you don’t have access to one of those, you could try using a long drill bit and use the bit of flex in the bit to help drill the hole square. I won’t be riveting the fire wall on until I am finished most of that area under the glare shield. Take the rudder pedals out would help too
Hope this helps
Murray
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Fitting windshield
Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:25 pm
by Lbrandt
Murray Parr wrote:Tim,
Do you have the rudder pedals installed? I had no problems with drilling the glare shield to the longerons, however, I had the fire wall off, and used a tight fit angled drill. If you don’t have access to one of those, you could try using a long drill bit and use the bit of flex in the bit to help drill the hole square. I won’t be riveting the fire wall on until I am finished most of that area under the glare shield. Take the rudder pedals out would help too
Hope this helps
Murray
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Fitting windshield
Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:27 pm
by Lbrandt
[quote=“Lbrandt”][quote=“Murray Parr”]Tim,
Do you have the rudder pedals installed? I had no problems with drilling the glare shield to the longerons, however, I had the fire wall off, and used a tight fit angled drill. If you don’t have access to one of those, you could try using a long drill bit and use the bit of flex in the bit to help drill the hole square. I won’t be riveting the fire wall on until I am finished most of that area under the glare shield. Take the rudder pedals out would help too
Hope this helps
Murray
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Fitting windshield
Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:36 pm
by Lbrandt
Lbrandt wrote:
Lbrandt wrote:
Murray Parr wrote:Tim,
Do you have the rudder pedals installed? I had no problems with drilling the glare shield to the longerons, however, I had the fire wall off, and used a tight fit angled drill. If you don’t have access to one of those, you could try using a long drill bit and use the bit of flex in the bit to help drill the hole square. I won’t be riveting the fire wall on until I am finished most of that area under the glare shield. Take the rudder pedals out would help too
Hope this helps
Murray
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Murray
I wanted to add a few more items on the windshield install.
Your idea about getting the holes around the fuel filler is spot on. I ended up using aluminum rivets around the filler and on two or three holes either side of the filler. I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried reach up there while turning a screw driver on the outside.
I would make sure to somehow push the windshield up into position at the front and work towards the rear installing clecos or screws etc. if you work from the back it’s gets very difficult to get the windshield up into position and not have puckering.
Temporary clamps at the windshield now keep things in alignment. Sing clamps aren’t strong enough so use something with a little extra strength.
Also Murry I will be shipping you 2 - 12” pieces of 18-8 stainless for your flap pushrods. They’re less than four inches long but maybe someday someone else down under will need some.
I should get them shipped this next week.
Hope this helps a little.
Leroy
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Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:03 am
by Murray Parr
Thanks for the extra pointers Leroy and for organising the pushrods for me. Here is an update on how my wind shield install went. On a flat bench, I drilled the holes around the fuel filler cap and three holes either side of this, so that the front of the wind shield is in a fixed centred position. I marked all the other holes to see if it is possible to drill them all on the flat bench and also marked the windshield all around the skirt line so I can always tell if things are staying in the correct vicinity (leaving the protective coating on of coarse). Once I clecoed the skirt in position as per plans and clecoed the windshield holes that I pre drilled, I was able to get the next hole each side lined up and drilled, by stuffing towels between the glare shield and the windshield. I think these holes could have been drilled on a flat bench also (a total of 4 holes either side of the filler neck holes), but the ones after that were coming out of alignment when coming further around the curve so it is necessary to drill the rest in position. I also found that I needed to drill one hole each side at the rear of the skirt as it was easier to push the windshield forward as well as stuffing towels between the glare and wind shields again to line the rest of the holes up. It wasn’t possible to drill this rear hole in the exact position but I found that by lining up where the angle changes at the bottom rear of skirt, it ended up being pretty close and these 2 holes ended up being a bit elongated but being sandwiched in between the skins and longerons it shouldn’t pose a problem. I clamped the bow in position once I was happy with the fit and drilled it in position to the longerons. Once all this is done I started at the top centre of the Bow and drilled and clecoed my way around to the bottom each side, it is necessary to remove the rear bottom of skirt clecoes so the windshield can remain tight to the bow as you drill and cleco. A few other pointers that were helpful are, I marked the centre of the rear of wind shield and skirt to help make sure everything is going together true, I also marked a distance line around the bow so that I could keep it in good position before drilling. I only drilled through the windshield skirt, windshield and bow strap with 1/8 drill first then once the bow was centred I drilled it #40 for now. All the holes were drilled through with 1/8 so that it could be clecoed in position as I go. I now will have to remove everything, drill to final sizes and then debur as required. This is definitely a steady as you go job and constant checking that everything is staying in good position as you go.
Hope this and the few pointers from Leroy helps the next person with this. I am sure the procedure will get further refined as more of these are completed
Cheers
Murray
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:20 am
by T41pilot
Do you have any pictures Murray? I’m just getting ready to try to fit the windshield and am having a bit of trouble deciding how to line up the windshield on the skirt before drilling the holes around the filler neck. Since the windshield is not the same size or shape as the skirt, it is taking some head scratching. At this point it appears that the aft side of the windshield lines up with the aft side of the skirt pretty closely but the cutout for the fuel filler in the windshield is offset from the skirt in the aft direction. Is this correct? If anybody has some photos for the B model windshield install that would be greatly helpful.
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 12:55 pm
by Area 51%
Hey Gregg…
Did you and your dad fly a T41 out of Grant Airport?
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 1:01 pm
by EdW
Area 51% wrote:Hey Gregg…
Did you and your dad fly a T41 out of Grant Airport?
I’m not Greg, but I fly a T-41A out of KFYE, Fayette County (TN).
Ed
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 6:06 pm
by T41pilot
Area 51% wrote:Hey Gregg…
Did you and your dad fly a T41 out of Grant Airport?
Yes, I originally bought the Airplane ( a T41B Army version) and then my dad and I later co-owned it. I sold it some years back but still miss it.
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2018 6:20 pm
by Murray Parr
Gregg,
i don’t have pictures, but you are right. align the trailing edge of the windshield with the edge of the skirt and align the filler neck to the side edges. The filler neck is further aft of the skirt to allow for the fuel door latch. Plenty of head scratching and forward planning is ok. A broader view of how it fits into all the associated components helps here.
Cheers
Murray
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 1:14 am
by magicpilot
Hi,
I probably can make some pictures tomorrow night … .
Just as side note … Sonex sent me a new windshield somewhat last year saying the tinting wasn‘t right but it was rather that the cut was different especially around the fuel door - just saying - I hope you have the right cut - but I really try to sent u pictures of mine as it is installed.
Cheers
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:18 pm
by T41pilot
magicpilot wrote:Hi,
I probably can make some pictures tomorrow night … .
Just as side note … Sonex sent me a new windshield somewhat last year saying the tinting wasn‘t right but it was rather that the cut was different especially around the fuel door - just saying - I hope you have the right cut - but I really try to sent u pictures of mine as it is installed.Cheers
Sonex sent me a new windshield last year, so I have the right one. The cutout around the fuel filler area was larger on my original probably for the legacy model. The advice about being able to line up the aft edge with the skirt should help alot since that was the only way I could see the pilot holes on the skirt being able to contact the windshield in all areas with reasonable edge clearance. I’m guessing additional trimming is probably necessary during the install. If you have any pictures, that would be great! I live in the sticks, so I don’t have another person to lend extra hands for holding things up so I’ll have to use the towel stuffing idea to hold it in place. Haven’t tried yet. Thanks for your help
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:02 pm
by magicpilot
Here are the pics,
BTW, just got my Special Airworthiness today … AWESOME.
Hope the attached pics help.
Cheers
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:01 pm
by EdW
That really looks classy
Ed
Onex 209
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 8:03 am
by T41pilot
Thank you for the pictures. I hope mine comes out as nice. Congratulations on your Airworthiness certificate too!
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:06 am
by T41pilot
After several days of labor, my windshield is finally fitted. All that remains is to disassemble and deburr and tap the required holes. Lining up the aft edge of the windshield to the aft side of the skirt and lining up the side edges around the fuel filler area worked well. I drilled the pilot holes around the fuel filler area and 3 spots outward from that as suggested. That was pivotal in getting the windshield properly centered at the beginning of the install. I also had a visible centering line and lines drawn around the inboard skirt edges on the windshield to use as a reference. After that it was towels between the glareshield and straps and occasional choice words to get the fit just right. I ended up trimming an 1/8 inch off the side edges to get the windshield above the longeron. At this point I almost hate to take it apart after the effort it took to get here. I’m sure the Canopy will be as much of a challenge if not more trying to get the forward edge of it to match the windshield. On a side note, I’m having trouble trying to source the 1/4 OD x 3/16 ID x 1/4 inch long bushings for the canopy latch. The screws or these bushings were not included in my Hardware kit. Anyone else have this issue? All places I’m looking have spacers or circuit board standoffs with 1/4 inch OD but I can’t find the 3/16 ID anywhere even McMaster Carr. Everything is for #8 or #10 screws. Any Ideas? Thanks to all that replied to my inquiries on the windshield.
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:52 am
by racaldwell
For the bushings, you could try some 1/4" OD 4130 steel tubing 0.035" wall and ream out about 0.008" to make it 3/16" ID.
Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:13 am
by Spaceman
I got my windshield fit over the past week and gained a lot of useful info from this thread and the pictures!
If anyone’s looking for more additional photos for reference, here’s my build log post with a bunch of pics:
https://paegelow.blogspot.com/2018/10/windshield-10.html
Fitting windshield-OneX
Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 2:41 am
by Tnhelm
Anyone have some tips on fitting the windshield to the OneX? I did a trial fit and had major difficulty laying it down across the firewall bow and the canopy bow. Tried straps with limited success, by myself. Two people will obviously be needed next try.
tnhelm
OneX 0137
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 11:39 pm
by tom0nex74
I mounted the completd bow to the aircraft, got in the cockpit, assistant placed canopy in position and secured it. I attached the bow to the canopy using Sticka flex system. Crawled out the bottom. Removed the canopy, 24 hrs later filled all gaps with remaining Sticka Flex. No holes, no screws. Looks great, works great. Tom Ryan. 0nex 74
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2020 12:02 am
by wlarson861
#10 screw is 3/16 - 32
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 2:50 pm
by ricky.cox
I just watch a video on that on YouTube. The guy is
Left Seat Adventures HE Is replacing one on an older B model
Re: Fitting windshield
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:13 am
by n307tw
ricky.cox wrote:I just watch a video on that on YouTube. The guy is
Left Seat Adventures HE Is replacing one on an older B model
He is on this forum also as Matt541