Revising the park brake location - 4.5 hours

 I struggled a bit lately on where to mount the park brake as the rudder pedal interferes with the location if I mount it in the Vans standard location. So after a bit of research, looks as if some have mounted it higher but this places it where the IO-360 mixture and prop governor control cables penetrate. So I finally decided to place the park brake in an elevated location near the bulkhead penetrations. Before I do anything, I drafted a template on AutoCAD to get the fit right before I did anything.

The initial position was too low and the result is that the brake lines interfere with the horizontal tubes of the rudder pedals.

I will need to elevate the park brake a bit. So I tested a couple of variations.

Once I was satisfied with the placement. I used the CAD drawing to cut out a doubler as the fire wall needs a bit of stiffening at that location. First step is to get the rivet holes set and the openings in the doubler sorted for the bulkhead grommets that I have. To start I used a #40 bit for all of the holes at the center points.

Using the holes in the doubler as a guide...I set the doubler on the firewall and squared it using a carpenter's square. Then I drilled and clecoed all of the holes.

Now its time to open the holes in the firewall for the bulkhead grommets.

It took some time to slowly and carefully open up the holes to final size in both the firewall and the doubler. By the time I was finished, I was really happy with the results.