David,

Thanks for the ideas. I don't really want to rip F2 out now. I can leave the lateral support in until the top and bottom nose blocks are installed. I think the designer felt that these blocks would serve as the main source of strength for the forward fuselage. I can now bend the fuselage sides sufficiently to install the firewall, and they look to be flexing uniformly. I will certainly use your windex/ammonia trick when I do that for real. I ended up with a Kavan 12oz tank. It fits very nicely and is much more space efficient than the round tank and the slant tanks I also have. I think I'll be buying Kavan tanks from now on.... I'm that impressed.

Will add more as I proceed.

Greg