I got up this morning, put the coffee on and went out to plan my building day. Looking at the firewall with a clear(er) head I realized I was test fitting the firewall not only upside down, but with left thrust. I'm really glad I listened to the little voice in my head that said - "C-I-L-L my Landlord" (wait, not THAT voice, the other voice) - "Keith. . . don't glue anything big after midnight . . "
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I started over by drawing a centerline on the firewall, then locating on the plans where the engine mount goes. The four holes on the firewall were located and drilled on the drill press. The original kit firewall was also drilled so I can attach a piece of PVCpipe and use it to handle the fuselage during painting. Since I didn't want the blind nuts to dig into the carbon sheeting, I made four plywood disks and glued them to the back of the firewall. Then I re-drilled the holes all the way thru the plywood disks and finished by opening up just the plywood holes for the blind nuts. I squeezed the blind nuts in pretty hard using my vice, and the end-grain balsa / carbon laminate didn't even come close to crushing - it is some pretty tough stuff!!
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After a quick test fit of the engine mount, I got out the glue and (hopefully correctly this time) installed the firewall. . .