The sliding canopy is held shut by a simple latch that engages a pin welded to the rollbar. The latch mechanism also doubles as a handle you can grab to open and shut the canopy from inside the cockpit. I assembled all the parts per the plans, then spent some time filing material from the latch arm until it fit properly.
Here it is being fitted to the canopy and rollbar. I had previously filed enough excess material from the steel latch pivot tube to place the latch arm at the proper vertical position relative to the pin. The latch shuts with a gentle over-center action, just enough to keep it from vibrating loose; I didn't want to force it to put a lot of strain on the canopy and maybe break something later.
The exterior latch handle is made from a piece of tapered aluminum stock that Van's gives you, which you're supposed to whittle into a pleasing streamlined shape. Me being me, I spent the extra bucks to order a nice machined handle, which should arrive one of these days.
Lately I've been taking a lot of closeup photos but no shots of the big picture, so here's a snapshot of the current state of the canopy. You can see the afforementioned latch, as well as one of the pins and anchor blocks I was working on yesterday.
