Today I started out by pulling the peel ply from yesterday’s 1-ply BID layup that I laid up on the underside of the left canopy frame first, then overlapped onto the upper fuselage.

On the inside I placed a decent bead of flocro along the top of 1/8″ aluminum spacers that were themselves on top of the left longeron.  This all will allow me to level out the left underside canopy rail for the “B” seal to have a consistent pressure against it along the top of the longeron.

Well, in trying to extricate the canopy off of the longeron, I popped off the front “X” of the wood canopy frame.  I cleaned it up a bit and slathered some more Bondo on to securely attach the frame to the canopy front apron.

As the Bondo cured I got busy trimming up all the screws on the canopy hinges so that they sat either flush or below the surface of the canopy frame, and could then be filled with dry micro.

I also removed a good portion of the tape from under the layup.

I then slowly and careful worked the canopy frame to get the canopy opened. Here we have the messy flocro on the underside of the frame.  A fair bit of it will get sanded away.

Another shot with the canopy frame front “X” re-attached, and the canopy open.

I then marked a line on the fresh layup where the new edge of the canopy will eventually be cut.

I then taped up the left side again for its round 2 layup.

I then sanded the intersection and old frame edge for a good 45 minutes to prep for glass.

Apparently I didn’t get a good shot of the glass after it was finished and I peel plied it, but this is after it cured.  The new black carbon fiber edge, with a ply of BID over it, will be the new edge.  Layup #3 will be to fill in the depression, which may very likely be filled with pour foam, with a final ply of BID on top.

Tomorrow I plan to continue working on both the left and right side canopy lips.