Canopy frame drilling
I spent about an hour trying to improve the fit of the canopy skin. I filed down the top flange of the front frame rib, but that didn’t seem to do anything. I also filed down the spacers in the hinge blocks a bit. That allowed the canopy frame to move forward a little bit. However, after reading through all of the canopy info on Dan’s site, it’s not a good idea to make the gap between the two skins too small. He ended up spending a lot of time filing down the skins. I’m going to shoot for a .032 or maybe even a .040 gap. The other thing I read in a few places is that no matter how good the fit is at this stage, after drilling and riveting everything will move and need to be adjusted again. Might as well just get it close and move on.
I positioned the canopy frame as good as it’s going to get at this point. I drilled the splice plate between the two halves of the frame and drilled the two rows of holes that go back from the hinge points.
One thing I noticed is that I didn’t need to file down the slots in the subpanel. Straight out of the box the canopy frame is not completely put together. There are a few joints that aren’t welded so that you can adjust the fit. Well, the hinge point has a tendency to hang down a bit until everything is drilled and clecoed together. Now that it’s all stabilized, there’s plenty of clearance in the slots.