Tip up canopy release question

See photo below. Trusted the plans instead of my gut. Now what?

Prior to the photo, the C-611 bearing blocks and WD-617 canopy release latch were gently clamped in position against the F-705 bulkhead. The hooks on the latch rotated in and out of the bulkhead slots perfectly. But from behind the bulkhead, the horizontal lines marking the vertical alignment of the top holes in the bearing blocks were not centered in the bulkhead pilot holes.

Trusting the plans, I raised the blocks to center the lines then tightened the clamps. Drilled the blocks following the directions. And now both hooks only partially fit in the slots. This can?t be right.



Unlikely that this is by design, so I've got three options.
1. Order new C-611 bearing blocks and trust my gut
2. Shave off the top part of the hook
3. Elongate the top of the bulkhead slots

Besides safety issues, I am concerned options 2 and 3 might create a future alignment problem. Any opinions are appreciated.

I'd elongate the slots, it doesn't look like it will take much to do so. The latches added to the canopy will be placed where needed, so no worries there. I recall mine moved slightly too...

The slots are elongated to allow the hook enough depth to fully engage the roller "tang" (or whatever its called) on the canopy. This will take a lot of tinkering to get just right. Keep playing with it & build on...

How do you even acheive that?

Always some thing new.

I had the same problem.
I elongated the slot and still had interference with the top of the arm.
I ended up grinding the top of the arm off about a sixteenth.
There is still plenty of metal where the arm latches the canopy so strength is not compromised.

I had to grind a little off the arm too.

Vans said wait

Gus at Vans responded: