Circling back to the canopy jettison and release, I did have a less than thrilling experience with the cover plates that cover the hinge areas on the front upper deck this weekend.
My Jettison handle was basically at the limit of being workable with the included spring. It may or may not retract the pins enough to do the job, if you had the spring pinned just shy of it's full normal length. I wanted to make sure that the handle could be pulled out far enough to definitely retract the pins. This meant stretching the spring a little, and drilling a new hole in the arm to pin it further forward. Do do this, I needed to remove the pushrod.
This is a very hard to reach area, so I thought I would make it easier. I got 2 helpers. I opened the canopy fully and told them to hold it in position while I pulled the pushrod, because anything that caused the canopy to lift would pop those 2 cover plates and potentially crack the paint. They just needed to hold it long enough for me to remove the rod and push the lever back to locking position. Then do it one more time when re-installing the lever.
Unfortunately, the canopy still moved ever so slightly. Not really even visibly from my perspective, and I could hear the paint crack. Once I was done, I closed the canopy and sure enough the paint was cracked around both of the cover plates. And, the tabs under them were bent enough that they no longer wanted to lay flat. To add more insult to the injury, the front canopy seal now wanted to ride up on the cover plate because it wasn't staying flat. So my seal started to migrate outwards.
I tried to use some green loctite just because it was a wicking formula, and get the parts to stay flat again, but no luck. I may try super glue yet.
Beyond that, the only way to ever have it even close to the way it was, is to carefully sand and file and make a nice border after removing the plates, then make new ones, prime paint and clear coat them, and then try to re-install them with some sealant.
The moral of the story is, first, those cover plates stink. But, if you ever have to work on that mechanism, leave the canopy fully latched and hire a midget to get under your panel and pull the rod mechanism apart.
At least now I will know I can jettison the canopy if I need to. Time to get some chutes.
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