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.

What years did you work there. Maybe you worked on my boat! Eric :evilb:

Give me a call 631-435-8496. I think you will need a new canopy. The laminate schedule outlined has not been in use for about 20 years. The canopy is quite old and once delaminating cannot be repaired,

George Linder

I did a few canopy projects with Eddie M. But NOT yours, Im
glad to see George L. posted "HES THE MAN" and I will write
his info in my new book.
Good Luck
Mike J.

I replaced my canopies last year. I ordered and paid Jay at Spectre for them. Several months went by with them only being supplied one canopy and a bunch of excuses why the second was not delivered. All of this stopped in a day when Jay called Peter at Skater and bought one from his inventory. I called Peter that night to thank him and he asked shy I didn't buy them from him in the first place, since he had 30 or so in stock. I never thought of it since my boat is a Spectre.

If you want to buy a new canopy, Peter is the go to guy. No excuses, he had it shipped the same day Jay spoke with him.
Peter even answered the phone that night when I called to thank him at 5:30 in the evening. Just another reason everyone loves Skaters and Peter in particular.

out of curiousity, how much is one ?

Sorry, I am in the Auto Glass industry, not the canopy industry.

I talked to you today on the phone, George. Thanks for the info. I'm going to try to make it through this season, I can see through it fine now. Shawn, what was wrong with your canopys? Were they originally F-16 canopys? Thanks Mike J. Eric

My driver side canopy began to delaminate and was cloudy in my line of vision. There were the oringinal F16 Canopies and I replace them with the same product. I sent the old one to Jay at Spectre to use as a template. If I were to do it again, I would ONLY deal with Peter at Skater. Send him the old one and get a new one back cut to the same size.

Thanks for the info Shawn, i'll keep that in mind. Eric