Not much work on the airplane this weekend, and even less that was worth photographing. I spent several hours sanding the edges of the canopy with increasingly finer grades of sandpaper, starting with 120 grit and working my way down to 600. Then I broke out this buffing wheel and plexiglass polishing compound that I'd previously ordered from Ridout Plastics. (Nice people to deal with on the phone, but they really screw you on shipping – $25 in shipping and handling fees for ten dollars worth of parts?!?)
The special "plexiglass polishing wheel" turned out to just be a normal garden-variety soft cotton buffing wheel. The polishing compound, however, was interesting – instead of the liquid goo I'm used to seeing for a buffing/polishing application, it was almost like chalk in composition. To get it where it needs to be you peel back the cardboard tube and run the wheel across the chalky stuff until it picks enough up.
It certainly did the trick – the edges of the canopy and windshield are now as smooth as the edges of a pint glass. Excellent.
I think I may have finally seen the last of the most obnoxious plexiglass work – or at least I don't think I will need to do much more cutting or sanding. (and I also have enough magic polishing stuff to do another dozen airplanes)
The next tasks will be the canopy latch handle and the rear latch blocks, but I have other stuff I have to do first.