Today I started on the canopy installation which begins with the track that runs along the middle top of the aft fuselage. The forward end goes into what is called the canopy receptacle which is just at the top of the rear seat bulkhead. The bottom track comes pre-bent at the correct angle but you have to bend the top piece to match. This took some doing, I ended up using some steel pipe I had and a bottle of rum to match the radius of the bend. The instructions are kind of sparse you basically work from the plans. Instead of cutting the top track to size and then bending it to match I decided to first bend the top track. The track is a stripe of .063” thick aluminum that is longer than it needs to be overlaid on the spacer below it; I bent it first then cut the ends to match up with the spacer. If you cut the top track to size before you bend it then your bend better be dead on otherwise you will end up with it coming up short on one end or the other. After making the bend I then laid out the pattern of holes which was a bit of work since the plans I found confusing.
After I felt like I had the hole pattern correct I drilled the holes (#42) into the top track on the drill press, at least the ones before the bend. The rest I finished with a hand drill. Next I clamped the top track to the bottom spacer and match drilled them using the #42 holes as guides, all of the holes were drilled to #40 in this step. It was dinner time so I called it a night and will finish the drilling tomorrow.
Used the drill press guide and table I picked up at OSH, made by Woodpecker.
