Right Corner Of C-1201 Canopy Trimmed

Was about to play hooky for the day, but my conscience got the better of me because the RV-12 is not going to build itself … so worked a little this evening on the project. The original plan was to continue drilling the canopy, but decided to trim the right forward edge of the canopy so the required 1/8" of clearance is created.

A piece of 1/8" aluminum was placed against the upper forward fuselage skin along the area where the C-1201 canopy requires trimming and a trim line was marked with a sharpie.

Red sharpie marks on the canopy shows the material that needs to be removed to obtain the necessary 1/8" clearance between the forward edge of the C-1210 canopy and the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin.

Decided I did not want to remove the canopy … so unscrewed the right side of the upper forward fuselage skin to gain some working room.  A very thin file was used at first and when more clearance was obtained, a piece of 1/16" thick aluminum was covered with 80 grit sandpaper and used to sand away the excess material. A file was also used in areas where there was more room. Admittedly, this took a little time, but did not have to remove the canopy to get the task done.

80 grit sand paper taped to a piece of aluminum used to sand the C-1201 canopy to obtain the necessary gap.

After lots and lots of hand sanding the final result … there is now a 1/8" gap between the forward edge of the canopy and F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin.