Finishing Kit

Today is one of those big days that you wait for. Time to rivet stuff together! I started with riveting the skin to the frame first, as seen below. The canopy braces will go on next.

Here are the canopy braces, all riveted to the frame and skin. Nice! This really becomes solid with everything riveted together. And I'm very pleased with the way it looks. I'm glad I painted it first. You can see what I was saying about how difficult it would be to paint this and get good coverage on the skin under the lightening holes on the canopy brace parts, so that it would look good.

Then I flipped it over, so you can see how it looks from the top side.

Another shot, showing the whole canopy frame. It is now complete, except for the side skirts and hardware on the inside.

Here's a closeup shot of a side view. You can barely see my curved black sharpie mark, showing where the canopy will lay down. The near side almost looks dented in, but this is an optical effect that exaggerates the true shape. Besides, this area will be glassed and filled in.

I'm now ready for final tweaking and fitting of the canopy. This should be fun from this point on. Before the canopy is permanently fastened to this frame, I will paint the interior part of the skin, the glare shield, a nice flat black. I may eventually cover it with some fabric or something, like a lot of builders do.

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