A few days ago I had asked Van's about the edge distance on the F-996C angle holes. They responded and said even though that part is what the tank attach bracket connects to, there is actually very little stress on it. The minimal edge distance is planned for and not a big deal since the part is really just to beef up the area so the tank bracket isn't only connected to the skin. I'll get back to making the 996C angles, but figured I'd keep rolling on the brake pedals since I had started them the other day.
I made all of the angle pieces of the brake pedals, matched everything up and drilled all of the rivet and bolt holes. I did goof up one of the premade pieces though - I wasn't thinking and upsized the wrong hole to 3/16". I could just put a bolt through the hole instead of a rivet, but the part is only $5, so I ordered a new one from Van's. I'm sure that little piece of metal would be $500 for a Cessna!
Back to the F-996C angles - I'm not really sure how to describe the process I went through to get these done! Because the measurements on the plans are wrong, coupled with the fact it's a super awkward setup to match up, clamp, drill, etc, it took something like 5 hours to make one single piece for the left side. I ended up having to make templates to transfer holes between pieces, since one part that has to be match drilled is a spacer that goes on the back side of the gear web (so it's a blind part - nothing to easily line it up with like the plans say to since their reference hole location is completely off). I'll have take some better pictures another time when I put it all together. It's hard to explain how it all fits. I finally got the left side done after spending most of the day on it, but the right side only took a half hour or so since I knew how to tackle it. The spacer and angle have to be riveted to the web, so I just sprayed some rattle can primer on the mating parts and will rivet tomorrow. I'll prime the rest of it down the road when I prep everything for riveting.
