Finish 3

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I finally finished the canopy frame and was ready to paint. I found an "ultra-flat" spray paint and used it for the top of the glareshield. I also worried about riveting the side skins in place before putting the plexi on the canopy frame. I did want to paint the inside of the rivets along with the rest of the canopy frame, but didn't really want to do it with the plexi installed. As it turned out later, it was very easy to slide the plexi in place even with the side skins riveted on.
This is a monumental moment... attaching the plexi for good and starting to fasten all the screws and nuts.
And it WORKS! One thing that is a little disturbing is the entire canopy gets pushed forward by the struts when in the down position so that the rear latches won't fit into the latch holes. This is because the front top fuselage pushes against the firewall and there is nothing holding it back. All should be well after the cowl is in place and the forward skin has been riveted on.
One thing I've been dreading now that the canopy cutting is behind me is the fairing along the front of the canopy. But, like everything else with building an airplane, you figure it out, get through it, and it usually isn't that bad once you're done. This is the filler starting to take shape to smooth the initial transition from plexi to skin. I squirted the first few layers in place using epoxy filler in a large syringe. Much easier than scooping it out of a cup with a popsicle stick.
HIGH QUALITY electrical tape is used to mask the plexiglass.
This was my first attempt at getting the side tabs to stick to the plexi. It didn't work. I'll have to try again. Prepare for a building slowdown when you get to this stage... after an hour, you're done and waiting for everything to cure. (FWF kit ordered so I can work on the engine soon)
After realizing it was futile trying to get epoxy to hold the "ears" of the front canopy skin to the smooth plexi, I just took out the dremel and sliced them off even with the bottom of the canopy. I think it will work just fine this way.
After getting a nice smooth transition from the canopy to the front aluminum skin using epoxy and filler, I decided to try my first layer of fiberglass tape. There is a layer of peel-ply (Dacron tape) over the fiberglass shown here.
In preparation for the engine mounting, I put the fuselage up on the landing gear. This is a big step. Firewall forward details are in the FWF section.