Well, a shipping snafu caused them to be late and I had a plane to catch.  I arranged for the box to be dropped off in my driveway on the day I would return. This was what I found in my driveway when I got home.

Here are a few of the parts from the finish kit.  The cowling is pretty obvious.  The wheel pants are the green things under the fuselage, and the engine mount is on the lower right.  The canopy is safely inside on the guest bed, and the cat enjoys sleeping under it.

I started working on the canopy hinge points but found that I was missing a piece of the .25 UHMW plastic from bag 911.  I also found that the instructions call for some UHMW plastic anti-scuff tape to be used in a couple of places but there isn't any included in the kit.  I went ahead and built the canopy latch mechanism. (sorry, no pics)

I spent lots of time working on this forward canopy area.  There is a lot of tweaking to get everything to fit right without rubbing, binding, etc.  I'm having a very hard time opening the canopy without the two pieces of skin binding together at the top where they butt against each other.  For some reason, the canopy skin doesn't lift up and away, it wants to go forward first.

There also seems to be a problem with the canopy skin fitting down correctly on the aluminum tube that runs across the top of the instrument panel.  There is about a 1/4" gap on the right and left sides. Can this be normal?  The blue line shows where the tube should be touching the skin. (the tube is reflected in the skin)

This is the canopy frame clamped in place.  There are wood blocks to keep the spacing correct between the canopy frame and the roll bar. (seen in the next photo)  The clamps will be moved to the INSIDE before the canopy is fitted!

This shows the spacing blocks in place.

I drilled the holes for the engine mount one evening when I had a few extra RV minutes (those are hours in real time), and put the canopy in place to get an idea of where the first trimming cuts would need to be made.

This is what the front edge looks like after one of the first cuts.

Then I fit the canopy back on and draw a new line for the next cut.  I then used a knife to score the plexi right on this line.  I could then peel the tape and plastic back, and retape just inside the cut line.  (Your mileage my vary, but this worked for me)

This is the back with a rough cut line drawn in.  Once the back is cut short  enough, it can be fitted under the rear aluminum skins for a better idea of how the plexi is fitting over the top of the roll bar.

I found a fast way to smooth the edges is a scotchbrite twist-loc pad in a die-grinder.  It removes the sharp edges from the cut very quickly.

I decided to cut my saw horse down to about 17" off the floor.  This makes it a lot easier to work on the canopy and get in and out of the cockpit to work inside.  This is another one of those things I should have done sooner.  Notice the plastic sheeting over the rear of the fuselage.  While cutting the plexiglass, white "snow" will cover everything in the room unless it is covered.