Day 253

Almost have the canopy doors completed. We went through and used SikaFlex to seal all of the countersunk hinge bolts and got them all torqued. We did these one at a time because we had the doors aligned and didn’t want to mess that up.

We also installed the bolt covers. These are pieces of plastic that we drilled through them and into the canopy. We then installed m4 rivet nuts into the canopy. We then painted them black. Once they were dry we put sealant foam tape around the the edges and bolted them in place.

We have installed the gas shocks. You hold the doors 2 inches from each other with them in the open position. Then you make sure they are perpendicular and opens the same amount from side to side. Then with the shocks mounted on the doors you drill through the canopy lip and bolt the bottom angle brackets on. Lastly you adjust the pressure in the shocks by letting small amount out until the doors open and close smoothly.

We are now working on getting the latch plates installed. You put a 120 degree bend in the plates to go around the canopy lip. Then you match drill through the plate into the canopy. Next a few rivet nuts are installed and then the plates put back on. Then you bolt the plate hooks on. We’re now supposed to close the doors and put the hooks in the closed position and drill through the remaining hole to set it in the proper place. The problem we have run into now is the hooks are too short. The latch catches are supposed to be drilled all the way through the plate and canopy, then bolted through. They are sitting about half an inch too high. Before leaving tonight we sent an email to the factory seeing if they make longer hooks. The manual has a notification that they should… Here’s hoping they have some.