Took a fresh instrument panel blank and traced the cardboard template onto it. Cut it out on the band saw and then slowly trimmed out the cutouts that straddle the canopy deck rail. I made the panel as high as I could and as a result, had to trim some off where it was touching the canopy skin/glare shield. Another gotcha that caused me a couple hours work was when I previously drilled the canopy reinforcement braces to the glare shield, it did not occur to me that they would be interferring with the instrument panel when I fitted the 3/4 x 3/4 angle to the top of the instrument panel. Sure enough, the reinforcement rivet line and reinforcement tabs overlapped the instrument panel angle in some places. So, the fix was to trim the tabs back to minimum clearance for riveting (3/16 from rivet holes) and also reduced the 3/4 angle to 3/8 on the top surface. I kept the normal 3/4 width on the angle side that gets riveted to the panel. That worked and all is ok now. Had I lowered the panel height I wouldn't have that problem, but the holes were already matched drilled for the top angle. I guess I could have also lowered it by enlarging the slots that straddle the canopy deck rail and wouldn't have had to trim everything above. Either works. Primed the facing surfaces of the 3/4 x 3/8 angle and the mating instrument panel surface. It is ready to rivet on the reinforcing angle to the instrument panel.
Primed the formed 3/4 x 3/8 063 angle and matching instrument panel.
Tabs facing each other were trimmed to clear the instrument panel top angle.
Hah.. Found a use for the hanging tennis ball that my wife hasn't been able to use for 2 years.
