I mentioned on another thread (maybe on RR) that you can use polyurethane spray to clear coat the canopy to protect it from the fuel. Works great and if you're careful and take your time, you'll get great results. Your "before" pictures look a lot like what mine looked like when I bought it 12 years ago.

I started learning on my own after buying it and then ended up parking the Shuttle for 11 years; never got past basic hovering with the training wheels on. Then a friend that I fly planks with came across a used heli and I decided to get mine back out, so we've been learning together. I use the FMS simulator which is free and very realistic for basic forward flight and for rolls and loops. I've even found a Shuttle ZXX model for it that looks and acts perfect! I'm sure that you could tweak the parameter files around to make a good 3D flyer if you tried. I practiced nose-in for weeks on FMS and within 2 days on the real thing, I was hovering nose-in like I'd been doing it all my life. I think the sim is the reason I've progressed faster than my friend (he has it but doesn't practice nearly as much as me).

After I had the start belt on the ZX wrap itself around the pulley and pinion gear while in flight, I decided that rather than rebuild it, I'd move up the schedule to get the next heli and I bought a Quick 30 Pro (don't let anyone else see me write that on this forum! ). I have since put a 46 in it and have been fighting with a vibration problem for a couple months and as soon as I solved it, the muffler broke off from the previous stress. Needless to say, I couldn't leave the Shuttle to rust, so I put it back together and have been flying it while the Quick is still sitting under the bench waiting for the replacement muffler to show up! If not a scratch-built heli, my next bird will most likely be an X-Spec next year.

Keith