17 Sept 06 - Canopy Frame, Installing Struts

The canopy frame is pretty much ready to rivet together - we'd gotten it completely ready to go yesterday, so today we're going to try to get most of it together and see what happens, really. This should be fairly straightforward, because most of the rivets can just be squeezed.

Splice plate is now riveted on there, canopy side rails are now attached to the front.	We're also trying to attach the struts. The ones that attach to the frame are fairly straightforward, but getting the nut on the back of this part is a serious pain in the rear. These were just going to be on temporarily, but now, there is no way we're taking them back off. Guess they won't be painted.
Canopy struts are in place.	Ta-daa! It hinges up and down nicely. Seems to work just fine, so far.

The struts are pretty easy to take on and off - there's a little clip on each end, and if you slide a screwdriver in here, the metal pulls back far enough that it just pops on the end. Nice and simple, but also won't try to come out when you don't want it to.

It's worth noting that when you put the gas struts on, it changes the shape of the canopy to a certain extent. The struts push the canopy forward with a considerable amount of force, and this pushes then entire canopy forward. In addition, the sides

Of course, this may change after we rivet the skin to the frame, so I'm not sure any real conclusions can be drawn just yet.

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