With the Aft fuselage skin riveted in place now it was time to fit the side skirts. I needed to fabricate the two sideskirts out of some stock aluminum. They needed to be trimmed down to the required dimensions and then aligned with the aft skin. This took some iterations, but eventually I got a nice fit. Once the parts were temporarily taped in place, I began drilling the skirts to the canopy frame.

I used my rivet fan to get perfectly spaced holes, and drilled the skirts to the canopy. I needed to use some small washers in between the skirt and the frame near the front section in order to get the proper spacing and alignment with the side of the fuselage.

Once the skirts were fully drilled I removed the skirts and countersunk all the holes in the frame, and dimpled the holes in the skirts.

I also fabricated the canopy handle and marked and drilled it to the skirt and frame.