I wrote to Van's to ask their opinion of my elevator travel situation, and their reply was:
Matt,
You can either make a new elevator up stop or add a piece to the existing stop. The horns hitting the aft bulkhead is not a bad thing, but that will not happen when you fix the up stop.
Bruce Reynolds
Okay, I can do that. Since the existing elevator stop is already drilled for the bolts that attach the vertical stabilizer, I decided to leave it alone to avoid causing further problems. Instead, I created this little elevator stop extension out of some 1/8" angle:
It's riveted to the underside of the existing stop, using the existing three rivet holes through the stop and aft deck. It effectively moves the face of the stop forward about 3/32".
I also added three flush rivets to attach the other leg of the stop extension to the aft bulkhead. Probably overkill, but it makes me feel good.
Now to test the new elevator travel. Here's neutral:
Here's the new up position:
I now have 29.4 degrees of up elevator travel, which puts me in the allowable range of 25-30 degrees. I probably could have made my stop extension even a little bit longer, but as long as the elevator travel is within the okay zone I'm happy.