After another few discussions with some experienced Canardians familiar with the old glory days of the Cafe Races, I decided on another modification. Now I’m sure this may very well elicit some groans and ha-rumphs, and maybe even a few mutterings of how crazy I am, to put it politely. I decided I was going pulley-less and running my rudder cables from Point-A (rudder pedals) through a curved conduit that traverses through the centersection spar, makes a semi-shallow bend and heads to Point B (rudders). No fiberglass strands will be hurt in the making of this modification, just merely slightly separated at the holes in the foam so that glass strength and integrity is still in tact on the centersection spar. So, no pulleys means that I don’t require the pulley brackets, and thus no “ears” on the firewall.
Once I finished cutting the ears off the firewall, I could get to glassing it (and laying up CF on the instrument panel).