I received the canopy gas strut option today. I had considered designing and fabricating my own, but after comparing the cost of the SPA kit verses the DIY cost, there was only about a $20.00 savings, plus the time to order the raw material for the two end attachments, then fabricating the parts. The kit has everything including the fasteners.
The doubler plate was positioned on the inverted canopy stiffener flange, just aft of the roll bar cut out, and four #18 holes match drilled through the canopy stiffener. The four holes in the doubler plate were countersunk to match the supplied hardware, then everything except the gas strut was cleaned and primed, in preparation for the paint basecoat/clear coat.