Well, there haven't been many things in this hobby called "Airplane Building" where I can claim a "perfect 10" but I finally hit one. Around the canopy in the front, the plans call for simply countersinking the screw (or rivet) holes and putting in the requisite fastener. I've seen a few guys paint around that area but it just always looks unfinished to me. So, today, I set about cutting some paper doll patterns out of cardboard stock trying to get a fit around that curve that I could live with. It curves in multiple planes at the same time so its a trick to get it to lay flat all the way around. Fortunately, I had a nice big piece of .025 2024 aluminum and I traced the pattern and set to cutting it out with the new cutoff tool. Next it was a half hour of filing it down nice on each side. Using the modified hole-locating tool, I was able to drill the holes nearly perfectly. A run through the pneumatic dimpler and it was good to go. It fit PERFECTLY! Not to mention that it truly dresses up an otherwise rather ugly place. Yahoo!
I still have the windshield to start. Given the success of building an all-metal bezel on the rear canopy, I'm more enthusiastic than ever to try to do all of the fairing-in of the windshield using metal instead of yucky fiberglass...
