Time: 4 Hours
Now that the canopy skirts have the inside finished I could remove the canopy from the frame by drilling out the keeper rivets. Those came out really easy and I was able to get the canopy off without any issues. I will do some more work to the holes later before returning it back to the frame for final installation. Before removing the frame I drilled the forward roller wheel legs to the frame tube so they can be bolted in place. You wait to do this so that you can either raise or lower as needed to keep the shape of the canopy inline with the windscreen. For mine they both laid out just perfect without needing to touch the legs up or down.
I then removed the frame and put it on the jig so I could work on it. First up was to debur all the holes and clean the metal shaving up on the steal. I cleaned and scuffed the inter frame with Scotch Brite pads to prep for primed and paint. I also added some epoxy/micro to the aft end where the two sizes tubes meet so that they will have a nice smooth transition. Since I can’t prime until the epoxy dries tomorrow so I moved on to another canopy frame mod that Glenn did. He noticed that in his first RV-8 that the inside canopy latch tended to run and chip the paint on the frame when the canopy was open. In the following photos you can see where it hits the frame. 
So to prevent this from happening I drilled a hole and tapped it for a #6 screw. I will then place a smal piece of rubber hose on a #6 screw and thread partially in to create a stop that the latch will hit and stop on before hitting the frame. 
So I will let the epoxy dry and get to painting tomorrow.
