I started the canopy skirts today. The instructions tell you to trim within a ¼” of the guide mark. The skirt has a slightly raised area that marks the perimeter of the skit. I did this except I left a ½” at the top. I have a fairly large fillet at the glue line on the canopy and I want the skirts top edge to cover this if possible. After cutting the two skirt halves I marked the location for all of the holes that will attach the skirt to the canopy frame bottom. After a short lunch break I drill all of the holes. The plans tell you to drill them to #40 but then directs you to make a hole finder using a #30 rivet, this did not make sense to me, I know the holes will eventually get drilled up to #30 to take the CS-4 rivets but I plan to drill and cleco the skirt with #40 drill first then match drill up to #30. I made the hole finder with a #40 rivet. I am using epoxy to hold the guide rivet in the hole finder so I will not be able to use it until tomorrow.
The last thing I did today was to see how well the skirts will fit; they seem to fit pretty well. I think my best fit is going to be to start from the front and work to the back; the two halves have to be joined in the back anyways so I will make any cuts I need to for the best fit then glass over the two halves. The skirt does not nest perfectly at the transition of the Plexiglas to the frame, I did expect this. My plan is to allow the top edge to sit away a bit from the canopy and I will fill this with a bead of Sika flex.
You can see the raised line, I also penicled along thie line to see it better
Hole in lower sectoin will attach skirt with rivets
