The big goal today was to get the aft window properly located on the fuselage so it can be match drilled. This involved a lot a small adjustments to get everything looking correct.
I reapplied the making tape to the roll bar. The Sharpie line was drawn by using the forward canopy edge as the guide.
As I started to get things aligned, I clamped the hell out of the canopy/roll bar interface. I actually took at ton of time to get things adjusted properly.
You are supposed to cut away the canopy to clear the roll bar mounting bracket. Vans doesn’t really provide any guidance in this area. You just have to figure it out.
To help close the gap between the canopy and the frame, I used 2X4s to apply outward pressure on the canopy.
On thing I initially forgot to do was tear away the masking tape that was covering the holes along the roll bar. This will allow me to accurately hit each hole with it comes time to drilling. As you can see in this picture, the canopy edge extends beyond the split line. I’ll trim back the canopy when it’s time.
Finally, after a lot of prep work, I started drilling the aft canopy. The position is locked in and there’s no going back now. I just stared drilling the holes along the aft top edge of the canopy.
Here’s the state of the finishing kit. This is looking more like an airplane every day.
