The canopy on a side-by-side RV is hard to open from the outside, no matter if it's a tip-up or a slider. I decided my canopy would benefit from having an exterior handle to help me open the canopy while standing on the ground, and I wanted it to be small, streamlined, corrosion-resistant, simple to install, and easy to replace. I found a nice looking stainless-steel cabinet handle at Home Depot that seems like it will fit the bill. For future reference in case I need to replace it, it is a standard 96mm size and is threaded for 8-32 screws.
I put some masking tape on the rear portion of the canopy frame to help me find the true centerline, and marked and drilled two holes into the center tube with appropriate spacing to fit the handle.
After deburring the holes in the top of the frame tube and enlarging the holes in the plexiglass, I drilled through the bottom part of the tube using a drill guide to keep the drill bit vertical.
With the plexiglass off the frame, I clecoed on the the C-653 cover strip and backdrilled the handle mounting holes.
I drilled the holes in the frame and cover strip to #19 for a #8 screw, and enlarged the holes in the canopy bubble to 1/4" to provide plenty of clearance between the plexiglass and the screw threads. I still need to obtain some screws long enough to go through the canopy tube, plexiglass, and cover strip – probably something like an AN525-832R20. Until then, here's a photo of the handle temporarily screwed to the plexiglass, just to show how the finished product will look:
Getting this little project out of the way means I can cross yet another item off my "things to do before the canopy can finally be riveted together" list. I guess you could say I'm starting to get a handle on the situation. Hah!