I came out to the garage this morning and made the big cut.  A lot of builders seem to get all worked up about this, but it’s a total non-event.  Just go for it.  The canopy in this section is significantly thinner than around the edges (just over 1/8″ thick), so it cuts fast.  The whole cut took only 2-3 minutes.

I smoothed out the edge and fit the canopy temporarily on the fuselage.  Blurry, but this looks sweet!  There’s still pretty of trimming left to go though.

I also edge finished the aft window.  This will be put aside for the time being while I work on the forward canopy.

With the top center of the aft edge of the canopy flush with the line, the sides are forward of the line by nearly 1/4″.  This was expected though since there was a gap at the top before the big cut.  The canopy pivoted down around the front edge.  I still have to lower the canopy more in the front though, so this will be reduced somewhat.  After the front is at the proper height, I’ll remark the line and trim the aft edge to follow the line perfectly.

I’m planning on using sikaflex adhesive around the canopy channel and cabin frame, so I taped some 1/8″ thick pieces of rubber to both pieces.  This will raise the canopy enough for the adhesive to fit.

After clamping the canopy in place, I marked a further trim line around the front that will finally remove the last of the flare where the front flange used to be.  I also marked a cut line along the side that will bring them up to within 1/2″ of their final position.  These cuts need to be done to get the canopy to transition more smoothly to the sides.  I’ll try to do these before work tomorrow.

I finished yesterday with a couple of minor gaps around the front of the canopy.  I got started tonight by laying out a curve along the front edge from the gap peak to gap peak.  A few minutes with the cutoff wheel removed the scraps.

The canopy fits much better now.  There’s still about a 1/16″ gap in the center, but this is good enough to do the “big cut.”

I taped the canopy down to prevent it from shifting.

You can sort of see here that there’s less than 1/2″ of space between the canopy and cabin frame.  From what I understand, this is better than most builders achieve.

I then laid a few pieces of wide masking tape along both sides of the cut line.  The theory is that this will help guide the cutoff wheel, but I’m dubious of this since the cutoff wheel basically cuts anything the moment it touches it.

Finally, I transferred the canopy to the bench and screwed down some blocks to stabilize the two halves prior to cutting it in two.  It’s too late to do this tonight, but I’ll try to knock it out first thing in the morning.