Here are the mods that Celso De Santi, the person building my Viper is doing to the cockpits. The idea is to have the two tubs attached to the canopy, like you have on a Bandit ARF. So when you remove the canopy, the tubs come out together.

You can see that he has replaced the instrument panel cover with a thin sheet of 1/16 ply, and reinforced the front tub with balsa.