Glare Shield Fit

[szicree]

I see that it has been discussed here before, but I'm hoping to get some additional thoughts on how to make this thing fit. It fits the panel, and mates the windshield pretty well in the two center holes. However, as you move outboard, it diverges away from the windshield and the angle of the mating flange is no longer parallel to the windshield either. I could fab some small wedges out of wood or foam and run longer screws through them, but am hoping for a more elegant solution. Thanks in advance.

[cjb]

I made little wedges from spare plexiglass so you aren't putting stress at the mounting points which will lead to crazing. The glareshield fabric covers it up.
Chuck
Kitfox7

[Dorsal]

I use only the center 4 screws to go through the glare shield for the reasons you describe.

[Dave S]

Similar deal on our series 7........fabricated hard foam wedges; ended up getting several longer screws to go through all the stuff.

Dave S
KF7 Trigear
912ULS Warp

[ken nougaret]

now that i am tackling this part of the build i see exactly what you all are talking about. this is very disappointing how poorly the glareshild fits to the windshield. this is going to require many hours of fitting/sanding hard foam to fill the gap.
ken

[szicree]

I talked to John at Kitfox a couple of weeks ago and got some real good guidance on the glare shield that differed significantly from the manual that I have. First of all, he said to cut most or all of that forward flange completely off of the glare shield. Second, he said to attach the aft lip of the boot cowl to the windshield with a series of screws (I believe I used 8 of them). The inner 6 of these hold some small aluminum tabs that will retain the glare shield. I'm attaching a drawing that he sent me to make things more clear. Long story short, this method worked perfectly and the thing fits perfectly.

[ken nougaret]

thank you very much steve, i'll give this a try.
ken

[GWright6970]

Are there any pictures out there?! This is turning into an excellent reference thread! Thank you!

[darrellpralle]

thanks for the good info, I'm at the same place in my build on my 7 kit. Just for info purposes if you are getting apolstery kit for kitfox plan 3 months for delivery. Plan on flying my 7 to oshkosh next summer. Darrell

[ken nougaret]

i ended up cutting most of the lip off the front of the glare shield and attaching aluminum tabs(supplied in kit/cut from stock) with rivets/bonding bent to the correct angle of the windshield. i have to say it was a real pain in the butt. in the end it looks fine, just a lot of work.
ken

[ken nougaret]

there's some pictures of my glareshield in my photo album.
ken

[War Eagle]

Looks really nice.

It seems like anything utlizing fiberglass takes a lot of time to finish out so you are happy with the looks.

I used the fiberglass instrument panel and between it and the glare shield I probably put in over 80 hours trying to get it fitting and looking nice.

Lot of work.