I received some UHMW tape from Van’s yesterday, so I disassembled the latch and put pieces of tape between the attach angles and the latch handle pieces.  I then filed out the openings so that the handle has about 1/64″ clearance all around.  This required removing and installing the latch handle countless times to get the fit just right.  I still have a little work to do to get this where I want it, but it’s operating smoothly now.

I reassembled the subpanel along with the hinge blocks and clecoed on the top skin.

I drew a centerline down the aft tube on the canopy frame.  This will be used to ensure the holes drilled through the top skin will go into the center of the tube.

Several other builders have commented that some of the welds prevent the skins from laying down properly.  The instructions mention this, but a picture is much more clear.  Here you can see that the weld would push the skin up about 1/32″ or so.

30 seconds with the vixen file and the weld is nice and flush with the angle.

The instructions also mention that the flange needs to be filed square with the face of the forward channel through the center.  A few minutes with the vixen file also took care of this.  Sorry for the blurry picture.

I clecoed the skin to the forward channel of the canopy frame and drilled most of the aft tube (the one I drew the centerline on).  I’ve seen a number of other builders have a problem with these holes not lining up with the centerline, but mine was almost perfect.

I fit the canopy frame for the first time, but almost immediately I had an interference problem.  I couldn’t get the canopy frame far enough forward.  I had anticipated interference from the hinge spacers, and a quick check with a mirror confirmed that was the problem.

I pulled the spacers (which involved climbing under the subpanel and removing the hinge blocks which was a pain in the ass).  I trimmed 3/16″ off the back edge.

I reinstalled the hinge blocks and spacers and then reinstalled the canopy frame.  Another builder commented that using a strap helps pull the skin down tight.

That resolved the issue.  I now have almost 1/8″ clearance between the hinge arm and the spacer.  Do yourself a favor and cut at least 1/8″ off the back of these spacers from the dimension Van’s specifies.  It will save you a lot of headaches.

With the hinge spacer interference resolved, I could get the canopy skin almost all the way forward.  I’m still getting some interference somewhere because I can’t seem to get these skins any closer.  I have almost 1/32″ on the left side.

On the right though, I have almost 1/16″ gap.  I need to determine where the interference is so I can pull these skins tight.

I couldn’t find anything obviously preventing the canopy frame from moving farther forward, but I suspected the seal support flange.  I unclecoed the outboard portion of the canopy frame skin and sure enough the forward channel of the canopy frame was pressed firmly against the seal support flange.

A few minutes with the vixen file removed the interference and now the canopy frame could be moved far enough forward that the skins butt together.  The plans want you to put a 0.020″ spacer between the skins, but the fit isn’t perfectly tight along the whole joint.  Instead, I’m going to butt the skins tightly together and then file the canopy skin to create a uniform gap along the whole joint.

I put a couple of ratcheting straps on.  One is pulling the sides of the frame inward to ensure the frame is the correct width.  The other is pulling the frame down to ensure it’s tight against the fuselage.

I also use a couple of clamps to make sure the canopy frame wall pulled down tight.

I drilled the channel to the flanges on the hinge bracket.  I then disassembled the frame and deburred everything and countersunk all of the holes on the forward face of the channel.  You can also see the little target I drew on the hinge arms.  Once I get the canopy frame in position, I can look through the holes in the hinge blocks.  As long as I don’t see any of the red line, I will have plenty of edge clearance on the pivot hole.

After spot priming all of the mating surfaces, I clamped the frame to pull the sides in as far as possible since the clecoes allow some flex.  I then squeezed all of the rivets in the splice plate.

I also squeezed all of the rivets holding the hinge bracket to the channel.  I ended up needing to make some spacers that fit between these two pieces since the hole spacing on the skin pulled the bracket back slightly.

I then reinstalled the canopy frame on the fuselage and got it back into position.  I crawled in the fuselage to confirm the holes would land in the right spot and they were great.  Plenty of edge clearance all around.  I tried using my right angle drill, but I couldn’t get squarely on the hole.  Instead, I decided to peel up the outboard portions of the forward skin and use a straight drill.  If you click on the picture to zoom in, you can see that the hole is nearly centered on my target.

I used my straight drill with a 6″ long, 1/4″ bit to mark the holes.

Then a fabbed up a little drilling block to ensure the hole would be square and drilled all the way through the brackets with the 1/4″ bit.

I then opened the hole up to 23/64″ and then used my 3/8″ unibit to open the holes up to 3/8″.  Here you can see the bushing block in the right hinge arm.

And here’s the bushing block in the left hinge arm.

Finally, I put the canopy frame back on using some temporary pins and checked the motion.  As the instructions specify, the seal support angle interferes with opening the canopy frame.  I filed back the seal support angle a little bit and retried the frame.  After a few iteration, I have the canopy frame swinging smoothly.

I finished the fit of the forward canopy frame to the forward skin.

I ended up with about 0.032″ along the entire joint.  I did end up having to put a 0.016″ spacer under the forward channel of the canopy frame to lift the skin up a little bit.  Otherwise, the front edge of the canopy frame skin was pushed up by the subpanel a bit and the front edge of the canopy skin would catch on the aft edge of the forward skin when I tried to raise the canopy.  You can also see here that I installed a bunch of clecos from the inside to give me a little more room to open the frame.  These still stick up too much to allow the frame to open fully though.

This is about all I can raise the canopy before it interferes with the clecos, but it’s enough to ensure everything moves smoothly.  Beyond this point, there would not be any interference anyway.

I finally got a long day on the project for the first time in a while.  I got started by making some 7/8″ and 1/8″ spacers.  I used some blue tape to make the wood spacers exactly 0.875″ thick.  The aluminum bar was already 0.125″ thick.

The flanges of the canopy channel need to be bend to 92.5º (they come from the factory at about 88º).

Bending the flanges of the channels severely warps them.  I had to flute them to get them flat again.

Here’s a closeup of some of the flutes.  Fluting this 0.063″ thick channel is tough.  My hand is aching from this.

I laid out the holes for the splice plate that will join the two canopy channels.  I should have read a few of the builder’s logs a little closer.  The outer holes on the center row end up too close to the tooling holes in the channels.  If you haven’t already drilled the splice place, you probably want to move those holes 1/4″ up.

I drilled the splice plate to one of the two channels.

There is a sharp bend in the canopy weldment.  A few squeezes with the hand squeezer smoothes out the curve.

Next up, I laid out and drilled the holes in the two forward splice plates.  These join the canopy frame sides to the forward weldment.

The splice plate sits immediately  on the other side of this joint.

Here are the side channels clamped down to the 1/8″ spacers.  You can also see the splice plate clamped to the side channel and forward weldment.

The aft end of the side channels are also clamped down on top of the 1/8″ spacer with the rear angle flush against the channel.

The side channels need to be positioned so that the 0.032″ thick canopy skirt will be flush with the side skins.  Here I’m using a piece of scrap to make sure the side frames are positioned correctly.

After everything was finally positioned, the aft end of the side frame can be drilled to the canopy channels.

The forward splice plates were then drilled to the side channels and forward weldment.  After drilling these, I removed all of the clecoes and disassembled all of the canopy frame components.

Because of the angle the side frames meet the forward canopy weldment, there is a gap between the bottom flange and the splice plate flange.  To fill this, you have to fabricate a wedge out of aluminum.  This took probably one hour to make two of these, but it wasn’t as bad as other builders made it out to be.  The plans specify that it should be 5/32″ thick at the forward end, but fortunately my gap was only 1/8″, so I could use some scrap I already had on hand.  The scrap already had a radius on one edge that tucked nicely into the radius on the bottom flange of the forward weldment.

After fitting the wedges, I laid out and drilled four holes along the bottom flange.

Finally, I deburred all of the canopy frame components.  Next up is to countersink a bunch of the rivet holes and then start riveting this puppy together.  After that, it’s time to start on the canopy itself.  I was really hoping to get the canopy cutting done during August while it’s still pretty warm, but it looks like it’s going to stretch into September.

I primed all of the mating surfaces and then clecoed the canopy frame back together.  I then clamped the frame back on the fuselage to ensure everything was aligned properly since clecoed joints have a little bit of flex.

I had to use my stubby clecoes to cleco the wedges in place.

I then riveted the splice plates in place.  I had to pull the frame off to reach the rivets on the bottom flange.

Here’s the inside of the joint.