The Murphy Builders Site

Good morning

I fitted the windshield on my Elite, made the fiberglass piece around the bottom of the windshield and now the question,
do I glue the fiberglass piece to the fuselage and the acrylic windshield and if so what is the best glue to use?
I was playing with the idea of applying a glue to the whole piece and then riveting it to the fuselage, am I completely wrong or just somewhat?

Coenraad

Coenraad
General practice seem to be to use a U shaped rubber gasket. I wrapped a rubber strip around the edge that LP plastic sells.
The fuselage will flex more than you might think and then the plexi also expands about 3 times more than aluminum when it heats up so you don't want a solid attachment or strong glue. Various soft sealants like Butyl tape can be used in small amounts. An archive search will reveal several materials such as a Bostick sealant that can also be used. The plexi needs to be free to move around a bit. My experience is that any semi setting sealant will break loose from plexi anyway in time unless the gap is much much larger than what we have to work with.
Ken

Adding to Ken's reply, many people rivet the bottom piece (I used lg flange rivets), and rivet or bolt the side and top retainers. You may need to remove or replace the windshield one day and this will make the job easier. In theory, you could remove the side and top retainers, lift out the old one and slide the new one under the bottom retainer. In practice, though, it's difficult to fit a new one with the bottom piece in place. Craig

HI: The acrylic windshield should not be riveted to the frame. No holes. As an adhesive, making the retainer structure out of fiberglass and aluminum, I use 3M's Strip Calk, p/n 051135-08578 and at Aircraft Spruce the Part # 08578. It's a great product, seals magnificently and allows for natural movement of all parts. This is my 2 cents worth.Eduardo