RV-9A: Canopy - 7/30/2012
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 Time to drill the first holes for the Roll Bar
The drawing explains the exact placement of these holes into the F-721B Canopy Deck. It's a little confusing, but I managed to figure it out. The Aft #40 hole goes through the top of the F-721B flange, but also has to go through the second F-721B flange below. These holes are used to guide the drilling of the C-668 spacers and the Roll Bar (WD-641).
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 Here are the C-668 spacers
These spacers have to be custom cut to fit and rounded off to fit under the F-721B Canopy Deck. They provide support for the bolts that hold the Roll Bar in place.
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 Spacer on a stick
From reading other builders comments on this phase of the canopy construction, I've read that it is pretty much impossible to hold the aft spacer in position with your fingers to drill a marker hole into the spacer using the previously drilled hole in the F-721-B as a guide. The bottom flange of the F-721-B prevents any kind of access. So I used my wife's super glue to fasten a 3/8" wooden dowel rod to the back of the C-668 spacers. Wood doesn't like to be glued to metal, so I let the bond cure for about 15 minutes and then hit it with a heat gun. Then I positioned the "spacer on a stick" under the previously drilled hole in the F-721-B deck and drilled a small hole into the spacer using the hole in the F-721-B as a guide. The hole wasn't very deep. I removed the spacer and finished the hole on the work bench. One thing I need to mention here is that the dowel rod should have been moved back and glued flush with the outer edge of the spacer. I had to removed some of the wood to get a good fit under the F-721-B deck.
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 Here are the spacers
Ready to go to the next step.
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 Making bigger holes
The four spacers need to be drilled out to a larger size to handle the bolts for the Roll Bar. The forward spacer holes require a #12 drill bit and the aft spacer holes are 1/4". No way am I going to try and hold these guys with my bare hands. So I created a spacer trap out of some scrap wood.
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 Time to the first holes into the Roll Bar
Using the same #40 holes in the F-721B Canopy Deck as guide, I used a #40 drill bit in my angle drill to the drill the first holes into the Roll Bar from below the F-721B Canopy Deck.
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 Drilled the holes to final size
Being nervous about the canopy stuff makes one forgetful. What you should have seen here are pictures of the Roll Bar and the F-721B Canopy Deck with the final holes drilled to size for the bolts.
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 More spacer on a stick stuff
This worked so well, that I decided to try it again. This time I moved the stick back to where it was flush with the outer edge of the aft spacer and super-glued it in place. Then I superglued the washer around the pre-drilled hole in the spacer, and then superglued the nut onto the washer. I let these guys set up for a long time and then hit them with the heat gun to assure that the wooden dowel rod was dry all the way through. The forward spacer didn't require the "stick". It was easy to install.
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 Done! All bolted!
The washer and nut on the aft "spacer on a stick" was so permanently super-glued to the spacer that I didn't even have to put a wrench on the nut to tighten the aft bolt down all the way. Thank goodness! I was wondering how I would get a wrench in there anyway.
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