Stjohn's RV-7

4 hours
There are always loose ends, mostly consisting of fiddly bits that didn’t get finished during major ops. These are things started while waiting for parts or when there isn’t enough time for a big job, like fiberglassing the canopy. On the canopy, I ran out of SS screws a while back, leaving 3 holes unfilled in the plexi-to-metal connection of the frame. Whilst waiting for the Spruce order to show up, I started on the battery box. The batt box was a good way to ease into FWF tasks, and I’ve now got it done, except for the painting the retaining bar and standoffs. I made the master and starter relay doubler and that’s waiting to go in as well. I painted the canopy latches and put them on, and my screws came in from Spruce so the tipup’s all done too, except for the latch fingers not being able to close the canopy all the way because the latches are maybe 1 or 2 mm too high (yes I said millimeters instead of 1/16ths) and even though the latch handle closes, the fingers aren’t all the way engaged with the latches in the detents. So do I file the fingers and detents to the point where the mechanism works or do I elongate the latch holes in the canopy frame to drop the latches by the required distance?
I hate the canopy. It’s running neck-and-neck with paint as far as hated tasks, but I have to tell you, paint has gotten a lot easier since I stopped worrying and learned to love the rattle can. I might do the whole ship in rattle-can matte black. Just because.