It looks like the weather tomorrow should be okay for priming, so I started today by deburring and prepping the front deck and subpanel parts. I'll prime those tomorrow so I can move ahead with riveting it all together and moving on to the tip-up mechanism.
I can't start the canopy frame itself until that front deck is all riveted together, so I skipped ahead to the canopy latch. It's tough to explain and hard to even visualize from the plans. Like most things, it'll make more sense once it's actually complete. The latch requires two cutouts in the side skin. I located a template, checked that it was right about 50 times, then drilled the rivet holes that will hold a couple pieces of angle in the mechanism. I drilled holes at the ends of the slots, then used the dremel and small cutoff disk to cut the slots themselves. That was nerve wracking. One slip would really mess up the skin.
The initial cutouts went pretty well. I snuck up on the right dimensions with files.
The main part of the latch is made up of two 1/8" thick pieces that have interlocking teeth when the latch is in the closed position. The long piece had a bit of a bow to it from being punched out, so I straightened it and then smoothed all of the edges out.
The latch bars get sandwiched between two pieces of angle, which get riveted to the side skin.
I had to take a second stab at the lower angle. Even though the first one sure seemed perfect in terms of the dimensions, the two bolt holes must have just been the tiniest fraction off - the teeth of the latches wouldn't disengage. The second angle worked out better, although I think I'll still have to round off the teeth a little bit so they slide over each other easier.
I temporarily bolted everything together, sandwiching the latches in between the two pieces of angle. The instructions say it works best put UHMW film on each angle face to allow the latch to slide easier, so I put some shims in place to give room for that down the road. With all of that clamped together, I match drilled it to the holes I had drilled in the skin.
