The JB Weld was hardened, so I drilled the holes between the canopy rail angle and the rollbar. The packing tape on the rollbar worked great and the JB Weld popped off of it and stuck to the angle. I sanded it to the edges of the canopy rail angle. Looks like it'll work perfectly. The canopy rails are attached to the forward canopy frame with a splice plate. It seems like an awfully flimsy solution, but I suppose it'll stiffen up once the actual canopy is in place. I lined the rails up with the fuselage and clamped them in place. The top forward portion of the rails had to be bent in and the shape changed a little to match up with the top ear coming off of the main frame and to give the plexi a consistent gap. The gaps between the bottom side of the forward frame and the top fuselage canopy deck are inconsistent between the two sides, but there's not much that can be done about it. The right side sets nice and even, but the left side has a slope to it because of how it's welded at the front edge. Once again, another reason I'll probably need to work on my fiberglass skills to finish up the canopy and make it at least relatively even.
With the splice clamped in place, I match drilled it to the rails. The top ears won't be drilled until later in the fit process.
I pulled the frame off of the fuselage for the next step. I don't have a picture, but the bottom edge of the splice plate forms a wedge gap with the flange of the front frame. That is what I made the tiny wedges of aluminum for a while back. The rails get clamped together to the front to ensure the outside edges line up, then the wedge is slipped in and 4 holes are drilled up through the bottom flange. The frame looks a lot bigger when it's off the plane! It's also like a wet noodle. With how flimsy it is, it's no mystery why every step seems to completely change the fit of the previous step. Frustrating for sure. Up next is a bunch of prep work. I need to countersink all of the holes and prime/paint everything to get it ready to be riveted together.
