<E28> Loose parking brake handle

[KiloYankee@xxxxxxx]

Hello all!

I have an '84 528e.  Recently I've noticed the parking brake handle being
loose.  It can be moved about an inch left to right.  Just the other day, I
pulled up the parking brake handle and the base of the handle moved back about
an inch.
So I started some exploratory surgery and here's what I found:
I took the plastic trim panel off from around the parking brake handle.  I
also took the rubber "bellow" from around the base of the handle.
Lo and behold, I discovered some torn/fatigued metal.  Apparently, the base of
the parking brake handle is attached via a bolt to a small subframe (for lack
of better description).  This subframe is attached the the floor of the car.
It appears (and here follows my question) that the subframe is "sandwiched"
between two pieces of floorboard sheetmetal.  I cannot find any
bolts/screws/rivets or any other means of attachment.  The upper piece of
floorboard sheetmetal is slightly ripped and bent upwards in several places
assumably due to 15 years of the parking brake lever being pulled upwards.
This is what is causing the entire parking brake handle to move left, right,
and (when pulled up) backwards.

Questions:
Is the above described way indeed the manner in which the parking brake lever
assembly is attached to the floor of the car?  The whole assembly is directly
above the catalytic converter and the heat shield...I don't want to remove
these unless I really have to.
In addition to repairing the bent/torn metal, what else is involved with re-
securing the parking brake lever assembly to the floor?

Any and all help with this would be greatly appreciated.  Please email
responses directly to me.

TIA,

Ed Fens
KiloYankee@domain.elided

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