Brief Description: Pt. 2 - underside dam and bad fit
One of the reasons why the push/pull is needed, is because the canopy assembly is fairly difficult to "open". To open the canopy, the assembly at the rear of the canopy frame actually moved up a ramp and then along the fuselage back - and similarly, when the canopy is closed it slides along the rails and then drops down the ramp to make a good seal with fuselage and skirt. Well, the difficulty in opening the canopy is due to the anchor pin dropping down into the hole in the anchor block and the hole needing to be a little bigger... So I needed to remove the skirt, remove the canopy from the fuselage and then slightly open up the hole in the anchor block with a drill bit - I believe I used a 5/16". That helped the canopy slide in and out of the anchor block much easier.
The push/pull is still needed, but it works much better now. But - there seemed to be another contact point and it seemed to be coming from the front canopy frame contacting the aft canopy bow bolt. I used my dremel tool and sanding wheel to remove some of the offending frame and all was well.
I re-checked the canopy skirt fit and it was better - but not as good as it could be. I noodled some ideas that would make it look better aesthetically, but all of them consisted of filling in the approximately 1/8" gap with something... so I decided that I would like it better if I just cut it and started over... That's the good thing about fiberglass, I guess....
7.5 hours in the shop today and all I really did was go backwards...
