water in F-16 canopy
 

I have a Great American concepts race boat with an F-16 conopy that is separating in the front and letting water in between the layers of polycarbonate. I tried drilling small holes and sucking it out with a vacuum pump, but that did not work. ANY IDEAS?:evilb:

I would take it to a Safelite auto glass dealership and see if they have any ideas. They are generally excellent on car windshied repairs.
They do "bullseye" repairs by injecting super glue into the bullseye, and refinishing the surface. That may work on your canopy too.

Steve

I thought of that but i wonder if the glue would attack the plastic and make it cloudy. I drew it down to 30" Hg and the water didn't move. the affected area is about 1' square, so its a large area.
Eric

Do not take it to Safelite Glass. They are the lick'em and stick'em of auto glass. They also wouldnt know what to do with an F16 Canopy.
What you really need to do is take it to a REAL glass shop, one who specializes in IU's (insulated units) Kind of like double pane IU's in your house. Maybe you can get them to seperate the layers, clean it up, suck out the air and inject argon gas into it. This is how they make the IU's.

There should not be any air between the layers, they were bonded together. I'll probably have to remove the canopy and force the water out maybe with a series of clamps, and seal the edges.

You are incorrect, there should be air in between the layers and there is a gas in there to increase the insulation factor and prevent fogging. Call a glass shop or manufacturer and they can explain this, or you can google it. I know this link is for commercial glass but it is the same principal. Just make sure your seal is good so no moisture will get in there and you should be good to go.

It wont let me post the link, I dont have enough posts to the forum yet. Sorry!

The canopy is made of three 1/4" layers of polycarbonate that are bonded together to form a SOLID 3/4" thick shell with NO gas insulating layer in between. The canopy has delaminated near the front edge letting a very fine film of water force its way in while i trailered the boat home in a rainstorm. :evilb:

I did a number of project boats at Great American and I think
you have a major problem, Your best bet is to contact George
Linder, I can not locate his numbers any more but perhaps you
could do a search for his name or check with T2X.
Mike J.

I think your gonna need a new one

I called Lockheed/Martin, found tech support for the F-16 and they gave me a # for texstars who makes the canopys but the tech hasen't returned my call yet. I probably will have to replace it at some point.