Today, I begun installing the sideskirts. The two aluminium skins are riveted to the siderails of the frame and will clamp the sides of the canopy. here the rear of the right skirt.



Here the forward part of the left skirt. The canopy skin will have to be adjusted. The skin will also have to be cut where the skirt is overlapping. Normally the skirt should not be overlapping, but I pulled the skirt a bit forward to try to minimize the size of the small triangle shaped opening at the bottom. It was not a good idea as some rivets will now interfere with the frame rivets. Some innovative thinking to do about this.



With everything installed, I tried opening the canopy. Without the braces and the struts, the canopy is very floppy.



To help opening the canopy I fabricated two small handles made from some aluminium angle.

Today I did all the drilling on the canopy. There are a quite a few operations to perform. First the siderails and rollbar get drilled and deburred. The holes are not drilled to full size. Then the canopy is put back on the fuselage. On the picture, the siderail and the holes visible through the canopy.



The same for the rollbar. The canopy will be screwed to the holes on the green tape. The small holes in the back will be for the rear window.



The drilling is done by aiming the hole through the canopy. It's not that difficult.



Then holes have to be countersink with different depth between the rollbar and the siderails as there will be a skirt on the side.
On three holes on the rollbar I had some problems, with some chips on the holes, but no cracks. I countersunk a bit deeper and smoothed out the hole with my dremel. I think it will be bearely visible once finished.
Then I drilled all the holes to final size, and deburred everything.



After having put the canopy back on the fusealeg again, I marked the cutting line on the back of the canopy. I'll have to cut 1/2" on the top and 1/8" on the sides.

Today afternoon I cut the sides of the canopy. I do it slowly I don't want the sides to be too short. After a few iterations I'm happy with the result. I also sand a slight bevel to the front so it sits a bit better on the skin.
I the sand the cut line with smaller grit. Today I finished with 320 but after the final adjustement I'll go to 600.



As all the tools are out of the box, I also cut make the big cut on the rear window.

Great sunny weather today, so let's work on the canopy. First I enlarge the slit at the front, with the precut slit there is no way the canopy is going to fit inside. I make some guess work first, it will get fine tuned later.



After having done the cut marked last time, here is the first interference. The picture is from beaind the slit, and the canopy has to be above the small ledge visible in the picture, so I'll have to cut more.



Here a picture from the other side, the slit has been modified but the canopy has to be cut a bit more.



Here the same view after the cut. The slit seems to be bit too deep, but I think it will look better after the sides have been adjusted. I did I few cuts to reach this stage, but I did't want to end up too short.



After repositionning of the aft frame (it has to be in contact with the canopy), I drill and rivet the two halves together.



The lower angles get drilled to full size, I'll rivet them the next time the frame comes off the fuselage.

After the big cut yesterday, today begins the tweaking of the canopy. First I verify the positionning and the result of yesterday's cut. Here is a picture of the top of the rollbar, the line in the middle of the bar is visible, and the canopy goes above the line by 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. On the side the canopy is on the line or barely over the line. All looks good.



At the front, the canopy has to go in the "ear", the slit visible on the next picture. I have to shorten the front sides a bit more. Using adhesive tape I mark this new cut line.



Here we have the new cut line, I also maked the sides but left enough plexi to make the fine tuning later.