After literally days of attempting to tweek the forward canopy hoop so that it touches the canopy all the way round its diameter, touches, evenly, the instrument panel cover and has the ends level with the canopy rail I finallly managed to get it right.
Quite a frustrating and iterative process but extremely satisfying once done right. Drilled the attach brackets into the hoop and canopy rail. Disassembled the structure to mark out the pitch 100 interval for the securing screws.
With the front hoop installed the structure is firming up (even though the canopy acrylic is not yet fastened to the hoop). Will still add a horizontal cross beam to the rear hoop to act both as a pull down device and to ensure correct space to hit the latches.
I have ordered some 1/2 inch thick nylon, in accordance with the XL plans to assist with guiding the assembly onto the latch arms of the canopy. Also ordered P clamps for the bowden cables for the vents.
On 2nd February 2011 I drilled the forward canopy hoop to the canopy. No breakages fortunately but the forward edge of the canopy is not even and therefore there will be a bit more clean up work here with the dremel. The gap on the forward edge will require a fibre glass flashing to be custom made to neatly close this area with a rubber seal.
The leading edge of the canopy.
The hoop curvature resting against the coming.
The forward hoop attach points to the canopy rail.
