Fitting Canopy Frame

Tonight I took the plunge and started to fit the canopy frame.  There are lots of people who had problems with this so I am going to take my time and hopefully get it right.  I carefully re-installed the forward top skin, then reached through the firewall to tighten up the bolts on the UMHV Blocks that hold the canopy so that everything is nice and tight.  Then I protected the newly riveted side rails with tape and paint sticks..  As I tried to fit the frame, I think the major problem people have is they aren't able to get the two halves of the frame straight across in the center section.   I used an additional angle and some clamps to force the halves straight.  I almost pushed the center up beyond straight to see what it did to outer ends of the frame.. After some messing around I was able to get the fit really well.  Then put on a ratcheting tie strap and it sucked it down great...  Measuring out the gap in the skin with a spacer to be about .040 I then started the drilling process.  Worked the center plate first, then drilled down the center ribs and the side ribs.  After all the drilling was done I reached through the firewall with a Sharpe to mark the holes where the retaining pins will be drilled.   Looks at least for now like I got the measurements right.  The hol seems to hit dead center in the goose-neck.  Although it might be a tad low (which I don't think will be a problem), at least both sides were the exact same.  Time to remove this, clean it up and put back in to drill the forward holes in the goose necks...