Tuesday 19 January 2016

Carbon Interior Install - Day Three - The Final Panel

Having drilled out the best part of two hundred rivets it was time to start day three's progress and get the final panel removed.  

I'd got myself into a bit of a 'depressed state' at the end of day two's panel removal, as it was really fiddly inside the drivers footwell, and I really didn't fancy going through that pain again.  If you are attempting this refit and get to the stage of 'why the f*** did I start this?' the best advice I can give is look at those lovely carbon panels you have, and consider every next rivet as an individual task and be grateful that with every 'pop' you're one step closer to finishing! 
The garage at the start of day three - stuff everywhere and no end in sight!
The garage at the start of day three - stuff everywhere and no end in sight!
I did push myself a little bit last night, and removed the 'easy' rivets on the passenger side as you can see in the picture below... Onto the hard ones! 
Passenger side interior panel half removed
Passenger side interior panel half removed
I don't know if it's because I'm right handed making access to this footwell more 'natural', and although it was still a challenge to get them out, the final few rivets came out a bit easier than those on the drivers side.  I'd suggest removing the rivets from the drivers side first if I attempted this again, to get the hard stuff out of the way first!  Removing the interior panels requires a little bit of a wiggle and some basic 'panel manipulation' aka bending, but they come out relatively easily.
Passenger side interior panel removed!
Passenger side interior panel removed!
Two hundred and thirty seven rivets later (yes I counted them!) and both panels are finally removed - I was very happy that I'd got them out... I even went in and got Charlotte to take a picture of me having been brought to my knees (literally) by getting these two out!
I was literally brought to my knees getting these two panels out!
I was literally brought to my knees getting these two panels out!
And here's the pic of both interior panels finally removed - the dark brown stuff on the panels is Dinitrol 2135 that I used when building the car... I'll be using a touch more of this to protect the metal from corrosion before I get cracking with the refit. 
Both interior panels removed - yippee!
Both interior panels removed - yippee!
So that's the removal done!  It was a mission, but you can probably tell from the picture above, it was a good sense of achievement to have got this far.  Next up, the panel 'weigh in' and then the re-install.

4 comments:

  1. After 3 episodes I expected a weigh in, I can't have another episode without a weigh in. If I can ask, could you use the luggage scales as these are my preferred choice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon - it'll be kitchen scales for accuracy I'm afraid! :-)

      Delete
  2. Wow big job, admire you for taking it on! Will be very interesting to see the difference in weight!

    ReplyDelete

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