PA-20 Windshield Fitup

[Cameron]

I'm currently in the process of final assembly on a PA-20 for a customer of mine. I did not disassemble this aircraft so this is a little bit of a puzzle. I do have the drawings.

I just got the boot cowl installed and I'm starting to fitup the windshield. I'm installing an LP Aero flat windshield. At first glance, it looks like there will be a little trimming required, but that's to be expected. My main concern is the fitup of the wing's airfoil area on the top LH and RH of the windshield. When I put the rear edge of the windshield in to the channel along the top of the fuselage, there is a very large gap between the windshield and the area of the fuselage that is shaped like the wing's leading edge. There is also a tab on the fuselage that looks like it might be used to attach the windshield, but it is roughly an inch away. Forcing it down would not be a good idea in my view. But, the windshield does seem to be mostly flush with the wing's airfoil which is encouraging. A trial fit of the wing root fairings also appeared decent. I haven't been able to glean too many details of how this should look from the drawings.

Basically, I'm wondering if anyone has any pictures of the windshield fitup process, particularly how this area looked after they got done. What I have may be pretty close, or it may be way off I just don't have an image in my head to compare to.


20220621_233258295_iOS.jpg

[ysifly2]

Mine is PA22. I changed mine from flat to bubble, as there are no windshield standoffs on the PA22 down tubes and the windshield that was installed bowed in a lot.
Installed thick GLAP windshield.
For what it’s worth, will attach some pictures of how mine turned out. It’s one of those things where you work at it to get it to fit, but don’t want to go too far and end up with a big piece of scrap plastic.

I did get mine to fit to install the top screw through the windshield to the tinnerman nut
Hopefully someone else can add more hints n tips.





















Bryan


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[Gilbert Pierce]

I spent a lot of time just trimming small amounts, mainly from the sides and little from the bottom to get it to sit down on the fuselage wing rib extensions and be flush with the wing and leading edge fairings.

[Cameron]

Mine is PA22. I changed mine from flat to bubble, as there are no windshield standoffs on the PA22 down tubes and the windshield that was installed bowed in a lot.
Installed thick GLAP windshield.
For what it’s worth, will attach some pictures of how mine turned out. It’s one of those things where you work at it to get it to fit, but don’t want to go too far and end up with a big piece of scrap plastic.

I did get mine to fit to install the top screw through the windshield to the tinnerman nut
Hopefully someone else can add more hints n tips.





















Bryan


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These are great, thank you. I understand that it will take some work to get it to fit correctly, I just didn't understand what correctly was. These pictures help.

[Steve Pierce]

This is a picture of an unrestored 1953 Tri-Pacer. Other photos of this airplane here. https://photos.app.goo.gl/rBbjzKhP83KV1ILs1

20170724_190833.jpg

[Subsonic]

It's a subtle but noticeable thing. Most of those replaced are set Too High. The original photo above is a good example of how flat the line should be from L to R wing, with little elevation change in the height of the windshield. As Gilbert said, trim it to have the windshield set down on the fuse LE formers and the tab with hole should have minimal space between it and the windshield. Maybe enough for a leather washer. Bryan's looks quite nice, but is set higher than original. I don't know if he needed to reshape the WLE root fairings or just wanted new ones, but I'll bet the old ones wouldn't fit. Here is the best picture I've seen of an original. I saved it for when I do mine, because it shows how flat it is across the top. Click on it to zoom in. Tri-Pacer proper windshield installation.JPG

[ysifly2]

Mine did end up higher. Think I needed more off the top to set it back a little more and more off the front bottom to get it to sit down a little further. Which then means more off the sides.

I can’t recall if I fully tightened the front and back window trim pieces along the front bottom prior to “done-done” install, I would think I did, but believe that is one place where it raised up a little when getting it to fit between and fully secured. Leave the side clearance holes to the very end and done with all the trimming.

I don’t remember if the front wing root fairings that I removed would have worked or not, but they were not done well by previous. They also were not secured through the windshield to the “rib extension tubing”. So, I made new to resolve all that and improve fit and as close to mirror image as possible. Still have other inspection covers to remake, and some belly panels to replace as they look like Swiss cheese along the screw edges.



Bryan


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[Senseipilot]

Why did you need the clamps? I had to remove my windshield to drill the holes bigger for Steve's Skylight. The windshield had many cracks and was from the 70s anyway. Also, I couldn't get all the headliner fabric off the top front tube without removing the winshield.