Paul,
On 1) what I did was clamped my floor panels to a bench in my shop (raised
with blocks to make room for bolts/nut plates on underside) and assembled
the rudder pedals there. It made it much quicker and easier to file back
the tufnol and test for free movement this way. I also discovered that my
pedal shafts when bolted together were not exactly straight. It was at the
actual weld and I did not want to bend or put too much pressure on it. The
main problem is that with the bend, you have an up and down movement in one
of the tufnol blocks. I ended up having to file back a little more tufnol
on the inboard, stbd side block to allow for this. The extra material
removed was vertical, however, so there is almost no noticeable slop in the
system once together. It took a better part of an afternoon to get it
right. I disassembled/re-assembled the whole thing probably 10 times before
I was happy. Once done, everything moves nicely.
On 2) Same as Bill M (hey Bill!), just make sure you have ample foam support
(or even bond in some 3mil ply/bid bulkheads as Kim Prout is doing in his
new XS) to support the floor. The layups were not a big deal. You can do
in several pieces on cling film, with an inch or so of overlap, and it's not
bad. Everything turned out fine.
On 3) no info on car pedals. Might be too bulky and heavy. I always
thought that an alum. Crank like those used on BMX-type or mountain bicks
with bike pedals might work well. If you don't need the extra leg-length of
the pilot cranked stock pedals, this route would definitely be light (pretty
light) and certainly robust. You could easily have the cross-tubes
fashioned to accommodate. I didn't do it, but might be work a looke.
Emmet Welch
A141 XS MW
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