Brief Description: Canopy Frame 1 - Rough fit the forward canopy tip
The width of the fuselage under this canopy frame is 41 inches. It sits 5/8 inch back from the subpanel. I clamped on some old aileron skin reinforcing angles that had 5/8 inch flange for the spacers. The frame is flimsy because the forward channel is split at the middle so you can attach a reinforcing brace at the same time as you spread the two halves apart to achieve the exact width you need. I needed to spread the frame about 3/8 inch. More on that later. As I do not intend to install any jettison mechanisms, I cut a 7/16 wide slot starting 5/32 below the top flange of the subpanel and made it 2 1/2 inches long. I just used a unibit to make starter hole on top and on bottom and used the dremel cutoff to connect the two and there's my slot. Put the gooseneck hinges through there and then clamped up the frame. Lots of tweaking here, pulling there, clamping all over the place. When it was the right width, I drilled two #30 holes through each end of the connecting plate and clecoed it. Took it off and finished drilling the 12 holes that hold the connector plate to the two halves. There's your width.
This shows the fitted frame after I drilled the connector plate.
5/8 inch spacers clamped in place and the frame clamped to the sub panel
