Quick half hour installing a shield for the brake line grommet.

End result after cutting the heat shield (it's the largest of all the sizes available on Aircraft Spruce), drilling for the rivnuts and installing the rivnuts.

2.5 hrs. misc.

A Dremel grinding bit I have is just the right size to widen the channel for the brake line.  Easy!

I vacuumed it up and wiped the channel with a wet cloth.  The line fits perfectly.  Just in there temporarily for now as it will need priming and painting.

I have a large collection of inspection port covers...  But, none are the right size for the two ports in the luggage compartment.  I could make those.

I plan to finish the interior as much as possible before starting on the firewall and engine work.  Here it's in temporarily to check for fit.  One thing that became immediately apparent is that the floor carpets need to go in first before the side panels.  I have to tell you, it's very motivating to see the interior like this.

The carpet pieces for the floors are held down with Velcro, while the other pieces will be glued in place.  LOTS of pieces (every piece is precut!).

Another view.

3 hrs. misc.

The manual indicates to put the grommet center 45mm from the center of the bolt hole, but that seems too close.  And closer than it appears in factory photos...

Here's a close-up from a factory photo.  There's clearly a bit of space there.

So I went with 55mm center to center and that seems right.

The hole needs to be 45mm across (the outer trace in the photo).  Have I mentioned I love step drills?  🤓  I used this large bit to get it as large as possible then I used a thinner step drill to grind it out to the line.  Step drills are excellent as grinding bits!

Then I used a half round file to smooth it out.

I wonder whether the 45mm size hole is too small?...  Because at that size it is a MAJOR pain to get that grommet in....  I did the other wheel and I didn't bother to put the grommet in because these will have to come out at some point to paint.  I'll probably end up enlarging these holes...

Time to put in some tie-downs in the luggage compartment.  Instead of riveting them in I put in M5 rivnuts so that it will be easy to put the anchors in after the carpeting is down.

Temporarily in place to check for fit.

1 hr. on the seat belt bolts and right wheel brake fitting.

This angle seemed about right.  But, should there be some sort of washer under it?  I put medium strength (blue) Loctite on the threads.

AN7 nyloc nut fit this bolt.

Put the fitting on the right brake cylinder.  This was in the hole already (it's on the bottom of the other side's brake).  Should this go on the bottom?

Looking in the other side of that fitting.

1 hr. measuring a brake line and working on the spar inspection cover.

In place temporarily to measure out the hose length for the line from the master cylinder to the reservoir.

Just another view.  When I look at this view, with the sticks in the center of it's range, it certainly seems like I should bend the sticks...  Back and then up to the grips.  Hmm...

Measured the length based on my expected routing of the brake line.  Sent the measurement to Steve  at Aircraft Specialty.

Drilled out the floor pan and installed rivnuts.

3 hrs. misc.

Got 2 of the 3 hoses I need (I need to send the mock-up measurement for the 3rd, which is to the brake reservoir).  Nicely done!

Put the NPT fittings in the brake cylinder.  According to the torquing guide (I'm going to make a page for torquing and put the info there) these get finger tightened and then 1.5 turns more (it says a range of 1.5 to 3, but no way I wanted to go past 1.5 since that seemed quite tight).  Loctite 567 was applied.

These flared fittings get finger tightened and then plus 1/4 turn (which was hard to get to).

Just a test fit of the other hose to the valve.

Connecting up the Tee.  Hard to tighten these without some mechanical advantage - otherwise you'd never get it past the finger-tight stage.

Tightening the hose to the valve.

Since I finally had the correct nut, I was able to install the dimmer.

Put the fitting on the reservoir.

I'll use a straight fitting here.

Put one of the NPT fittings in.  Very hard to get it to the 1.5 turns past finger-tight.

Looks like I can use the supplied cover, just need to drill new holes for the screws.

I don't tire looking into the lit up cockpit. 😁

2 hrs. on mocking up the brake lines.

Needed to re-thread the fittings that go into the brake valve.  Used this die.
Here I'm starting the re-threading.  Just get it engaged and then....

Turn it slowly while applying light pressure to keep the die level and engaged.

Works like magic. 😁

And it's done!

Applying the sealant.

Wrench tight (but not too tight).

Mock up of the short piece connecting the master cylinder and parking brake valve.  Had to use a right angle on the left side of the brake valve because there wasn't room to do a straight.

Kind of chilly in the garage (8.9 C)....

Working out the routing of the line from the brake valve to the Tee.

Goes under the top part of the main spar.

Back to the Tee where I cut it to length.  Note that this is all for mocking things up.  Steve at Aircraft Specialty will make the actual final hoses based on my measurements.

Cut and connected.

Put in place so I can check that it fits well once in position and it does.

Airplane building is dangerous... 😜

It's going to be crazy cold tomorrow (holiday here in the US), so I won't be able to heat the garage enough to work in there...

1 hr. on the brake lines.

Returned late last night from a bit of a week-long family emergency, so didn't have much energy to work long on the plane today.  Besides the fact that the garage was fairly cold since it was in the 20's outside...

Working with parts sent by Steve @ Aircraft Specialty I worked on mocking up the complete brake system.  Here are the fittings for the brake fluid reservoir.

Current fittings to be removed.

Have I mentioned I don't like hex heads?  That remaining one stripped easily...

So I drilled it out... :-)

Hmm...  These AN fittings don't screw into the parking brake valve.  They go no more than 1 or 2 threads in, so I assume they are not the correct type.  The type that was in there before is on the right.  Straight vs. tapered issue?

These fit.  Quick test fit here, so they are not tightened at all.