Rob suggested that I call Rick once again to get any more info that would assist. I called Rick and with this great technology of our day...we were able to Facetime and he could get a good look at where I was in the process. He said I was on the right track and suggested trying to use the heat gun again to bend the tabs down a bit and see if that would get the fglass to move the final amount it needed to call it good.
I made a couple more small cuts. I then took the heat gun and worked the individual tabs and got them formed to the point where I felt that it was time for fiberglassing. I prepped the airplane and canopy area for protecting them for adding fiberglass.