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Part 1 - Construction As I was working on the window cutouts one day, with thoughts of taking to the air--much like the fiberglass dust floating all about me--I got to thinking: "This airplane has a huge windshield. I'll bet the glareshield is equally large. Funny, I don't recall seeing anything in the builder's manual about the glareshield. Now that I think about it, if I install the windshield now, building the glareshield after-the-fact could really be challenging." Okay, enough of me thinking aloud. But it's a good thing I did. I shot an email off to the factory, asking why the manual didn't mention the glareshield and inquiring if it wouldn't be prudent to complete this task before the windshield installation? Answer: The glareshield chapter was accidentally omitted from the manual (not sure if it was just my manual, or all of them), and yes indeed, the glareshield should be built before installing the windshield. Coincidentally (or not) they couldn't find any documentation or drawings for the glareshield, so they sent me some written instructions which basically amounted to (1) fit a piece of 1/4" foam in place, (2) glass both sides, (3) remove it, and (4) glass it into place after the windshield is in place. Sounded pretty simple, but in reality this turned out to be the most challenging part I've built yet. Here's why: First of all, this piece was BIG.
Secondly, it was highly contoured. Not just that, but "compound"
contours. I built a template out of cardboard in an attempt to design a flat
pattern. The first big problem I encountered was the portion that overhangs the
instrument panel, what I call the "visor." As you would expect, the
glareshield is sloped, and when using a rigid material like cardboard or foam core, the
slope tends to carry all Another problem was simply "bending" the foam core. The 1/4" polyurethane foam that I had on hand was really at it's limit when formed around the instrument panel bulkhead. I was afraid that it would break despite the factory's assurance that it wouldn't. Since this foam was really intended for some other use (fuel sump, I think) I decided not to risk it and ordered a piece of low-density 1/4" Divinycell foam instead. According to the Wick's catalog, this stuff "bends with a heat gun," so it seemed like a better alternative. When the piece finally arrived (they failed to mention that it was on back-order), UPS managed to crack it. While I was awaiting a replacement piece, I did a little experimenting and decided that a 2-piece core section would be the best way to go. A week or so later UPS showed up with a good hunk of foam.
Then, after getting an acceptable
fit with my cardboard template, I cut and slowly shaped the big piece of foam, again using
the heat gun where necessary, to mate up to the visor. I created a splice Now it was time for the bottom surface. I designed and cut out some ribs to stiffen the whole thing up, bonded them in place and glassed the surface in sections. Overall I think it came out pretty good. I'm sure, once the windshield is installed, I'll have to do some additional trimming to make it fit just right, but that's expected.
Part 2 - Systems "Systems on a glareshield?" you may ask. Well... yeah. 2 of them in fact: Lighting and defrost air. After a little bit of head-scratching, I decided that I needed two nozzles to direct hot air through the glareshield, each approximately 7" wide. I created a drawing of what I thought the nozzles should look like and emailed it to my Dad. From that he made a positive prototype, then a negative mold out of silicone and sent it to me. In each half of the mold I layed up a single ply of S2 glass, then joined them after they had cured. The process was repeated to create a second nozzle. In hindsight it probably would have been easier to adapt some sort of nozzle from a shop vac, but mine came out very light weight, and fit the IML curvature of the glareshield just right. Before the nozzles could be installed, I had to create slots in the glareshield for the hot air to escape. The first step was to locally remove the IML ply and foam core and fill the voids with potting compound. This provided a smooth, solid surface through which to cut the slots, and looked much more professional than having the foam core exposed. I rough-cut the slots using a rotary cutter and then finished them off with hand files.
Now if I could only figure out where my hot air is going to come from. That will largely be determined by my engine selection, which, again, is a future decision. I was hoping to install a diesel engine, but they are maturing so slowly that I'm not sure that will be a realistic option. Then again my progress is pretty slow, so who knows. With that task complete,
it was time to think about a lighting system. I wanted to get the lighting
After receiving my
package, I went to work wiring up the system. The good news was that the
light output was very even and just about the right intensity to illuminate the I think to do the LED lighting system properly, I would need to have some printed circuit boards custom built. That would provide the neatest and most durable solution, but gets much more expensive. For a little more money, I could buy Aero Enhancements' Ultra Vision system, which is a very nice solution to glareshield lighting. At this point that's the direction I'm heading, but I may revisit the lighting again later. Anticipating the need to run power wires from one side of the instrument panel to the glareshield visor, I installed a conduit. Part 3 - Finish I knew that I wanted to 'paint' the glareshield, but I didn't know what material to use. I considered just using some flat black paint, then I went to an auto paint supply store and considered using "bumper paint," but I figured there must be a better solution. One day at work, while I was in the flight deck of a new 767, I got an idea; why not use the same finish as we use on the Boeing glareshields? A little engineering drawing research revealed that the material was indeed a paint, known to us as BAC5755 Type 16 Non-Reflective coating (color 8845 brown, of course). Turns out this stuff is commercially produced by Red Spot Paint and Varnish Company as Nextel Suede coating, so I ordered some. Actually Red Spot is not a retailer, so my Dad ordered it through his company and we split a gallon. Good thing too, as this stuff is expen$ive. For a gallon of the Nextel Suede, plus a gallon of primer, plus reducers, accelerators, and shipping, our order topped out at $300. I also had to buy a decent spray gun, which set me back a couple hundred more. I opted for a conventional (high pressure) gravity fed gun, DeVilbiss model GFG-644. Before painting, of
course, I had to prep the surface. I already had a rough coat of UV
Smooth Prime applied, but it needed touch up around the defrost air vents,
and I had a few depressions and The Nextel primer is
black, as you can clearly see in the above photo. It had been a long time
since I used a spray gun, but the primer went on without any mishaps. I
let it cure overnight. The next day was 'show time.' I mixed up the Nextel Suede coating with the various components necessary to make a working batch, and loaded up the spray gun. A couple of test shots on some scrap cardboard, and I began spraying. It only took a couple of minutes to get a nice, even, consistent coat. I chose a dark grey color, with a few little speckles. It came out great, if I do say so myself. It didn't take much paint to cover the glareshield, so I still have nearly ½ gallon of the coating left. Perhaps I'll paint the instrument panel with this stuff too. Part 4 - Installation
This job would have been much easier with the airplane upside-down, but I was afraid that a drop of epoxy resin may leak down the inside of the windshield, or down the painted surface of the glareshield. That would have really pissed me off, so I did it the safe way and worked over my head. That's it. The glareshield is now permanently installed. I heard that another SQ2000 builder wanted to make his glareshield removable. Nice concept, and sure would make working behind the panel convenient, but I just don't see how that would be possible.
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system
installed before I painted the glareshield, and the painting had to be done
before installation, so it was really a sequencing thing. Even before I
started drawing circuit diagrams, I knew that I wanted to use white LEDs for
illumination. While I was at it, I decided that adding a second string of
red LEDs with a selector switch would be a good idea. LEDs have a lot of
advantages: they use very little current, they're nearly indestructible, they
last forever, and they're pretty cheap. There are some disadvantages too:
they usually don't come with any sort of housing or mounting device, their beam
pattern is narrow, and they're a bit tricky to wire up. After looking
through the 
