Before tackling the installation of the canopy frame, I decide to fabricate the small parts required. Here the plastic blocks and other parts. One of the blocks in the upper right corner was thicker by 1/16 than the other, it took ages to sand it down.



Then part of the jettison mecanism is to be worked on (I will only install it partially). Two steel tubes have to be cut and drilled. There is a little gotcha in the plans as the dimension given is not the tube length, but the length between the holes.



The picture shows the tubing end. The ends have to be sliced, and the dimension are not the same for both sides. Filing took one hour to get the four ends done.



I then drilled the various splice parts and drew the parts for the installation of the gas struts.

Work on the canopy will be next, some fuselage parts have to be reinstalled. First the rollbar, the access to the bolts is not that great so it takes some time.



Then all the panel support rib and brackets have to be installed. I could not resist checking with the forward part of the canopy frame. I seems to look good, but I know there will be a lot of work to have everything in place.



Here, a shot with the frame partly open, to show how it will operate.

A few parts were ready to be riveted, so I started with these.
First the small angles the panel will be bolted on.



Then the two firewall reinforcing parts. The grey color will be used for the visible interior parts (except the panel). It's a hammered effect paint.



And last, the parking brake valve support bracket.

Today I finished the nutplates and other holes on the rear part. I thought intalling some of the nuplates would be interesting and it was. There is no access for dimpling, so I had to countersink the skins. One hole proved impossible to rivet, so I used a pop rivet (see bottom left).
For the gap fairings, the holes have to be countersunk and the tapped. As this is aluminium, I will be careful not to apply to much torque on the screws, and use Loctite.



Here is the right fairing gap, the seal has still to be installed
Then I put all the empennage parts back into storage.

After a long time, I'm back in the workshop. I'm still working on the empennage fairing. The left side is tweaked a bit by heating the part and tying it down. Then I drill all the holes. There will be some more work to do, but only when it will be fiberglass time.



Then I remove the whole empennage from the fuselage. A lot of nutplates have to be installed : 12 on the vertical stab, 10 on the horizontal stab, 8 for the inspection plates and 7 on the fuselage.



On the fuselage I only made the drilling and deburring. I think the dimpling and riveting will be interesting as there is little access.