Sharp-eyes watchers of my build thread might've noticed a special OCD design element in my last post. Let me explain before zooming in on the detail...

I never liked the pinching of the inside vertical cockpit side panels with the seat belt tabs in the build manual. Originally, I was thinking of an access hole covered by a rubber grommet so that I could securely mount my seatbelts, yet not pinch them with the cockpit panels. However, I like that the standard recommendation is to provide this fastening, so I went with another way to address both the needs of fastening without deforming the panels. So I found wedge-shaped shims at McMaster-Carr and gave them a try. Here's some close-up pictures:

Driver's side: driver's seatbelt tab shimmed to cockpit panel2.jpg Passenger side: passenger seatbelt tab shimmed to cockpit panel2.jpg

Note the angle is nearly perfect I matched these shims that you see with reversed shims on the backside so that the seat belt bolts will torque down co-axially straight with the nuts(when that time comes). Further, since I'd like to maintain the mocked-up geometry during final installation, I "keyed" the shims with a 1/8" pilot hole to align them to each other and the panel during final assembly torqueing.

Happy Building!

Craig C