I was a pretty momentous day in the history of N8SH. With the great help of my friend Jim, we got the canopy, skirt and canopy frame assembled, which is a project I've been somewhat dreading for many years.

1. First, I removed all the masking tape from the skirt and sanded off the minor drips of resin that had accumulated here and there after the recent work I did on the inside surfaces. I also cleaned and inspected the skirt, inside and out, to make sure all the surfaces were smooth and the edge profiles were good. I spent a little time sanding out a minor divot in the upper edge. I also attached the temporary lifting handle that will stay in place until after the fuselage is painted.

2. Once Jim had arrived, I cleaned the canopy edges again, then we donned rubber gloves to place it on the frame and cleco it all the way over the front rollbar.

3. We lifted the skirt into position and I began installing screws and clecos to get it into position. Most of the screws went in pretty well, although many of them sat slightly proud of the skirt surface on a random edge, which I attributed to the slight deviation in the angle of the skirt holes and the angles at which I'd tapped the holes in the frame. I tried to deepen or modify the countersink profiles a bit, with fairly good results, but it was somewhat tedious. I made plans to perhaps grind off the slightly protruding parts of the screws later. Also, some of the screws stripped, and a few even spun in the holes when tightened -- and that's when I began to suspect the walls of the canopy frame tubes may, in fact, be a bit thin to accept tapping. (I also think the steel used in the frame is a bit soft. I remember that I was able to bend it with a 2X4 many years ago to get it into the proper shape.)

4. Nevertheless, after getting all the screws tightened down a sufficient amount, I began riveting the canopy to the front rollbar. The first few were nerve-wracking, but they came out fine.

5. Next I riveted the top line of holes that attached the skirt, canopy and frame. Most of these went really well, with just a few requiring a firm push on the top of the canopy to line up the three holes, and every canopy hole grommet appears to have stayed in place. I had to slightly open up two holes to get a good fit.

6. My plan was to then remove each screw, add some LockTite to the threads, and re-install each one. But after experiencing some more difficulty with spinning screws and galled threads, we decided that perhaps I should just drill each hole out to #30 and just install CS4-4 rivets. This seemed like a perfect and reasonable option, since I am probably never going to remove the canopy, and all the fasteners are going to be filled and painted over anyway. It also seemed to give a lot more strength to the assembly, since many of the tapped screw holes seemed iffy, honestly.

7. For each hole, I removed the screw, opened the hole to #30, checked the fit of the rivet and adjusted the countersink depth as needed, then pulled the rivet. It went pretty fast, and before I knew it, we were done.

I'm really pleased with the fit of the skirt and canopy, and especially with the apparent lack of stress that I've placed on the canopy -- which is the most critical part of the whole endeavor. The fitment of the skirt is very good, but not perfect -- there are a few minor gaps that are larger than I'd like, but nothing that's a showstopper. I think most of the issues will be resolved after I Sikaflex the intentional canopy/frame gap on either side, aft of the rear cockpit. There will also be some fillets of Sikaflex at the front of the skirt, where there's a gap between it and the vertical frame supports.

Thanks to Jim for a very successful day.