Bottom panel under seats

[Tim213]

Hi all,
Im confused about something that is probably obvious to most but I'm not getting it. I have all my floor panels installed and the firewall tunnel and rear tunnel brace fitted and drilled. The final bottom panel beneath the seats is my issue. The front of course attaches to the rear tunnel brace along with the welded tabs along the fuselage. The rear corners have these batwing type shapes and there are no tabs to secure them to. Does another part of the boot cowling attach to them or what keeps them in place? I made a cardboard template for fitting and it fits well except these rear corners. I hopefully attached some pics to clarify what I'm talking about. Thanks

[Collin Campbell]

Looks like you are trying to make this bottom panel too long. It should terminate just past (1/2 -3/4 in") the tube that the little attach tabs are welded to. The fabric wraps around this tube and will continue on aft of this point. Collin

[jaredyates]

Ours continues aft similarly to yours, and the rear corners are supported by the side panels, which wrap around under the tube. It's not especially elegant and Collin's solution sounds better.

[Tim213]

Thanks Collin and Jared, Collin just for info I traced out my template exactly over the factory piece from the kit. That's how big the metal piece is which is what threw me off. Sounds like Jared's piece was like mine but I'm going to follow both of your advice and simply trim it, although before chopping up metal I wanted to check first before I did something I'd regret. Thanks again guys for the input.

[Mark Goldberg]

Tim, most all the parts are sent long in the sheet metal parts for the boot cowl & cowling. They are intended to be trimmed to fit. Some parts are at their final size in one dimension, but purposefully run long (and needing trimming) with its other dimensions. Mark

[Battson]

We kept our panels long in that area, but it was a mistake. They are also attached to the side panels like Jared mentioned. I don't think it's a great solution. They are very hard to remove and refit for maintenance, scratching paint off regularly and they take a lot of fiddling.
I would follow Colin's advice and keep them shorter.