You do not want difficulty
With the leverage you have available in the latch it should feel snug but not difficult. The white "P" strip from aircraft spruce that I used in this area is hollow at the head of the "p" shaped material and the white rubber is so soft that it compresses to a very small size. Your approach my work but it requires some though on how you implement it. You do want some compression during closure to form a water tight seal, you do not want it to wear or fail after a short service life, you do not want it to be ugly. There will be some shrinkage with age (sort of like humans) that will degrade your seal.
I covered the leading edge of my canopy on two surfaces with aluminum tape (Actual aluminum with adhesive backing) from Aircraft Spruce. I wanted to cover the plexiglass to frame hardware (including fasteners and spacers that you put in there to allow the sliding part of the canopy to retain it's natural shape and conform to the curve of the windshield) and give a finished look to the front of the sliding canopy. I installed it very carefully to the outer surface of the plexiglass concentrating on a straight line at the trailing edge back just far enough on the canopy to cover the round frame tube (I understand that they are square tubes now) with the excess hanging over the front of the open canopy and provide a perfectly smooth tape surface with full area adhesion (no wrinkles or air pockets) on the outer surface of the plexiglass. Once that surface is done you can move on to the front edge of the canopy plexiglass. The idea is to fold the over hanging aluminum tape down so it also sticks to the front edge of the canopy plexiglass but it requires a little care and technique to do it right. The aluminum will stretch some but especially in areas where the canopy curves from the horizontal top to the vertical sides, a lot of slits need to be cut in the aluminum tape to alow it to overlap and lay flat with no wrinkles when it is bent down to cover and adhere to the front edge of the plexiglass. Cut off the excess aluminum tape after the front edge of the canopy is covered. A brand new very sharp blade in an Exacto knife worked very well for me. If mistakes are made it is not a problem since once you know what you are doing, it is relatively easy to take off and do again. I did not expect this to hold up long but I was wrong it holds up very well - after years of building with it inplace and three years of flying it is still like new. In anticipation of periodic replacement it told the painter in my 30 odd pages of instructions not to paint it but he did anyway. I expected the paint to scrape off but that hasn't happened either. Why is this important to you? Well, it is an additional gap reducing layer of material in the canopy to windshield interface.
Bob Axsom
