The photo also shows some older parts that had already been prepared.
I picked up the middle panel frames and added nutplates to them. The same I did with the panel base on the aft flange and on the web. I couldn't rivet the hinge angle to the canopy ribs yet as the primer needs to dry out completely before I want to do this.
The next step was possible to do without the canopy ribs finished and so I went ahead and match-drilled the panel base to the longerons. When fitting the panel base I noticed that it had a good fit on the firewall but was slightly wider than the longerons allowed for at the forward end of the canopy decks.
I had to spread the longerons a little, maybe 1/16", right at the aft end of the panel base before match-drilling was possible. In order to do that I cut a 2x2 to length to match with a spreader so it would fit right between the two longerons.
This shows the panel base half way through the match-drilling. The method worked very well and held up consistently during the job. Note that the most forward hole is so close to the firewall that is is hard to drill without marring the firewall. You could probably use the long drill bit but I don't like how it flexes and on such a delicate part as the longeron I rather have something with some more control. I used my recently acquired angle drill (remember? I needed it to fix a mistake I made with some nutplates down in the tunnel). Now it came in handy for this job and it worked very well!
I deburred the longerons (the two aft most holes on each side cannot get deburred though, due to lack of accessibility) and I cleaned of the amounts of Boelube I had used during the drilling.
Everything is ready to be put together and in place. All I'm waiting for is the primer to dry out.
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