Well! Today is a day that I have been dreading for about a year. Today was the day for the BIG CUT. We put the frame in the canopy and clamped it as best we could and marked the inside of the canopy using the forward bow as a guide, leaving a clearance of 1/16" in front of the bow. We then turned the canopy over and pulled a piece of duck tape overlying the mark. This gave me a better line to follow and also protected the glass. The cut went without mishap! Image #1 shows me using the pneumatic cutoff wheel making the cut. Image #2 shows Claude holding the separated wind screen! Image #3 shows the front of the canopy lying in place over the forward bow. In the photo if you look close you will se the blue line right at the edge of the cut. It was good and straight and took very little sanding to get the edges smooth. According to the manual, we were supposed mark the canopy at the upper edge of the side bows at the same time we marked the forward cut. However we delayed feeling that we could get a better fit after the wind screen was cut off. I think this is the case and now we can make the marks more accurately and remove the frame again and cut off the sides of the canopy. We could have done this today but we were so relieved to make the BIG CUT without incident that we threw down our tools and went bike riding. Tomorrow back to the grind!
