Jur's RV7 Aircraft Factory
2917 hours and counting
Some decisions in life are bare of any obvious logic

Drilling the top row of the holes that will hold the canopy in place along the side of the fuselage.

 before drilling through the canopy, making a final check on the bottom line of the canopy with the C-759 inside canopy skirt.
Using a scrap piece sliding it up to check that it is not hitting the canopy. That means the plexi is fully enclose without being pushed out.
You want the bottom line to be low enough in order to keep enough edge distance on the plexi. Although its probably important, I couldn't find dimensions anywhere that talk about minimum edge distance in the canopy.

Another view of the bottom line in the middle section.

Drilled all the holes through the canopy with a #40 plexi glass drill, then enlarge all holes to #30.

A view looking down. Nice fit.

Next part is the C-791 canopy skirt brace. Deburred all edges and started drilling the pilot holes in the top and bottom line.
then drawing the centerlines to drill the lightning holes in the brace.

Drilling the lightning holes on the drill press.

Finally cut the line in the middle of each lightning hole.

Removed the side skin and inspecting the holes in the canopy. All good, no cracks.

 Some more holes near the middle of the canopy.

Here is a view of the bottom line. the line goes very lightly up towards the front but well within specs.

Cut the front portion of the side skirt. This allows sliding the canopy back without chafing the side skin. Opened the canopy couple of times to check clearence from the canopy deck.

Full view from the side.

Looking up from the bottom up. Nice closing of skirt and fuselage side skin.

 Front view.

 Cut the little notch in the back aligned with the rear top skin.

Started working on the passenger side canopy skirt and following the same procedure as on the pilot side.

Drilled the top line along the side bow.

Good alignment in the front.

Measured the height from the bow to double check alignment.

Did some more finishing work on the side skirts on the pilot sided.

Attached and removed the side skin multiple times to bend the skirt down a bit in order to make it fit perfectly on the bottom side with the side of the fuselage skin.

Enlarged the holes final size with a reamer and dimpled for the corresponding hole sizes.

Countersunk the C-759 inner skirt brace and dimpled the bottom side of the C-791 canopy skirt brace

Clecoed everyting back in place for final fitting.

The gap in the front is rather large by the fact that the forward top skin it inside quite a lot. I assume this will be covered and solved by the forward epoxy fairing that encloses the windscreen and overlaps with the front of the canopy.

The side looks really good and has no bonding at all with the top of the canopy deck. If this part would not be cut away, it would not be able to open the canopy without chafing the side skin by the form of the side fuselage.

Just a little wide on the rear side, I will fine tune this when I make the epoxy rear skirt.

Working on the passenger side side skirt. Just like on the pilot side, I used the trick with the two aluminum scrap pieces to mark the height of the cut line above the rectangular frame bow line.
You can see a reference line in the image below and then the small black line near the edge that indicates the ideal depth. Used the hand-belt sander to grind away the excess material and sanded it down to 600 grit.

After some repetition of trial and more sanding, I got the distance perfect and drilled through the top line.

Close up shot of the alignment view from above and the front or the frame.

Skirt removed reveals the good edge distance on the canopy edge and nice smooth holes.Those plexi drills are really fantastic.

Next I started working on the skirt brace. Cutting lightning holes and drilling the upper and lower holes

Job done.