With the help of Rafael today we got the skirt braces drilled and they are doing the job of holding the canopy skirt tight against the fuselage. Rafael was on the inside of the plane with a piece of wood used to hold the brace in place while I drilled through the holes in the skirt while holding it against the fuselage. This locked the skirt into the fuselage curve and it fits like a glove. I also countersunk the holes for the 7/64th inch flat head MS pop rivets. I was going to dimple the skirt and counter sink the canopy frame, but after trying a sample it would not have looked good, and would require too deep a counter sink in the frame to accept the dimple. Next step will be to finish the inside of these parts Satin Black, make a support to do the fiberglass layup for the rear canopy skirt and then make the rear skirt layup.
Skirt brace drilled
Inside view
close up of the MK rivets used to attach to the canopy frame
