Although I did some sanding and touch-up micro on the aft nose cover, around the D-deck/longerons and on the elevators, my main push today was to finish off the install of the canopy latch external lock, by filling in the area around the lock assembly internal to the wall.

With the micro fill aft of the lock assembly good, I then made up a dam/form made out of clear plastic to protect the pivoting lock catch on the inboard side, as well as the slot inside the sidewall that the lock catch pivots into when unlocked.

I then mixed up and added some pour foam in this little pocket and let it cure.

I thought it was a bit more cured than it was when I went to remove the big blob of exuding foam, and drug some of the foam from inside the wall that I was trying to fill. No big deal, so I cleaned it up a bit and added a layer of micro (about 0.2″) on top of the foam and filled any voids too.  Here’s how that looked.

The plastic dam had a bit of springiness to it, and wanted to come off the outboard face of the pivoting lock catch, so I pinned them together with a Cleco clamp, just as I did when I added the pour foam.

A few hours later, when the micro had pretty much cured.  I sanded it down and cleaned up the internal area of the lock, mainly around the pivoting lock latch.  It took a little bit of digging and a few iterations to clean it all up and ensure the lock had freedom of movement in its lock/unlock positions.

I’ve been planning on making a video on my completed canopy latch, and I did just that for the last few hours of this late evening.

Pressing forward!