Skirts Match-Drilled

In the morning I started verifying the fit of the canopy left from the previous day. I saw that I needed a bit more clearance at the aft bow's base on each side to not touch the welds in that area.
The Dremel tool took care of that.


Then I took the time to adjust the forward fit of the side skirts to follow the curve of the fuselage/canopy. I thought this should better happen early so it could be bent a bit too far and then make a good fir while being forced back by the canopy curve.
We'll see if this was a correct assumption. I created the curve by drawing a line on the skirts that matched the one shown in the manual and then used a vise to clamp it and get the bend started along the line. The rest was done free-hand with the help of a paint can.


The last little trimming I had to do was at the weld on both sides of the canopy frame where the skirts would touch and not lay flat. I sanded them down with the Dremel tool and had the canopy removed for this to have easier access. I cleaned the spot and primed it, hence the green stuff you see.


The skirts where then put on place (with the canopy still off) and held in place with clamps to adjust the position as well as to support it during the first few drills until the clecos secured it safely.


Here a close up of the fit at the aft end where it almost touches the turtle deck skin.


And then it was business as usual. Drill, cleco, drill, cleco, and so on until everything got removed again, deburred, some holes dimpled and some countersunk in the frame.
This was when it looked like this.


And this was also the moment when I realized that I don't have any friends.
At least no friends that are non-claustrophobic, as well as lighter than me, and available, all at the same time.
My sister-in-law as well as one of my two nephews could have easily done the job of crawling into the cockpit, getting sealed in by putting the canopy back on and then hold a wooden block against the angle where I wanted to drill a hole through.
However, neither one was available and I hadn't planned for them being "accidentally" around this weekend by reading ahead in time.
So I had to stop here and find something else to do. This something turned out to be the canopy latch handle.
I drilled (a not so precisely done) pilot hole into the handle.


Adjusting the length of the latch pipe and then match-drilling through that latch pipe deeper into the latch handle, was next.


Well, the next step was to open up the holes to #19 and then tap the deeper part in the handle with an 8-32 tap.
Hm, an 8-32 tap? That's new - wonder if I have that ...
Guess what! The Avery toolkit discretely overlooked that I needed such a tap right now. They provide the 6-32, skip the 8-32 and continue at 1/4".
What a show-stopper!
So I had to order that tap and also threw in a 1/8" plexiglass bit but the shipping cost were still 1/3 of the whole order. Ouch!

I hope next weekend will be as warm as this one and that my sister-in-law will have time to help me out with the canopy.