Scuttle Removal

[Paul McKenzie]

I need to remove the scuttle to get good access to the electrickery.

Is it simply a case of:

1. disconnect the wiper motors and the washer, and unscrew or drill out the 3 poppers on the inside of the screen

2. remove the 2 bolts either side that hold the screen stanchions (or are there two other bolts holding the scuttle in place?)

3. Drill out the 24 or so forward facing rivets and the 2 (?) on the trailing edge of the scuttle

4. lift off the scuttle (which may have been sealed in with silicone)

Is that it, or are there some pitfalls to try and avoid?

Thanks

Paul

[Drumster]

Pretty much there I reckon.

There are also 2 nuts each side inside the scuttle that bolt the scuttle onto the chassis, if you have knee trim panels then you'll need to drill out these rivets too and you'll see the nuts I'm referring to

To make future scuttle removal easier use M4 rivnuts on the front bulkhead, I only used 12 but you'd probably get away with just 6. Also when replacing knee trim panels use self-tappers.

My scuttle popper bases were fixed with self-tappers, but I have also changed these to M4 rivnuts.

If you have a heated windscreen then you'll also need to disconnect the screen element, from memory they'll be bullet connectors behind the knee trims. (sorry be aero'd for many years)

I thinks that's all.....

[Paul McKenzie]

Good stuff Aero, thanks

[brianmurray325hotmail.com]

Way back in about 2010 my 2007 sv150 was hailstoned upon in italy. It resulted in me needing a new bonnet and scuttle, the grp wings and nose withstood the 1" diameter hailstones... the ally didn't. I got a new scuttle and bonnet and changed out myself. The 24 forward facing rivets you mention were not drilled out. The scuttle came away from the main body section at the bottom of that bulkhead, it was stuck in with a silicon type sealant, definetly not adhesive. The new scuttle panel came complete with the bulkhead.

[Nick Chan]

If you drill out the rivets, it means the bulkhead can be left in place and no need to unbolt fuse box or disturb wiring and cables that pass through it. As Chris mentions, replace with riv nuts to make it much easier to remove in future

Definitely easier to sort electrics with scuttle top removed than upside down in the footwell!

[Comp Sec]

it's fairly easy to drop the fuse block off and then after unscrewing the 4 nuts holding the scuttle to the channel and unscrewing the 2 windscreen wiper spindle nuts, and the two steering column bolts, then the entire scuttle lifts out of the mounting channel.

On mine i've relocated the fuse block to mount of the windscreen wiper mounting bracket so it's even easier, but i can see the attraction in leaving the scuttle plate in place if there are lots going through due to upgrades.

[SLR No.77]

Paul, I've done a slight variation on the method used by Chris ...

If you drill the bulkhead panel to take M4 rivnuts the flange of the rivnut will result in the scuttle being moved forward slightly. I got round this by fitting the rivnuts into some aluminium strip bonded to the rear of the bulkhead, the rivnut flanges are sandwiched between the aluminium strip and the bulkhead, with the holes in the bulkhead remaining 4mm. I happened to have my old bulkhead from doing a semi-rebuild so I trimmed a 15mm strip off the outer edge and fitted the rivnuts (x24) to that, then I used M4 bolts to fasten it all up with some RTV/silicon added in the spaces between the rivnuts to hold the strip in place.

We've since done TomB's car the same way another one with some simple ally offcuts.

Stu.

[Drumster]

Stu, nice idea 

Another thought, if you haven't already got them get a pair of these, then you won't need to remove the windscreen from the scuttle. Simply unbolt the scuttle from the chassis and it all comes off in one piece like this, albeit with Brooklands

 

 

[TomB]

Boing - thread resurrection! 

Live got rivnuts & small button headed bolts along the leading edge of the scuttle to make removal easier. Has anyone ever fitted rivnuts at the bottom of the dashboard hoop to avoid putting rivet in here? This would make the scuttle completely removal without resporting to drilling rivets? My experience of drilling out rivets is each time it’s done, the hole gets a little bigger, and if there is some steel pin left in the rivet, it is very difficult to do neatly.

[Jonathan Kay]

I don't know but IIUC there's at least one report of using self-tapping screws. Full search of the archives.

Jonathan

[NeilCSR]

I put rivnuts in there when doing the scuttle recently for the reasons you've outlined above.  No problems encountered other than the bolt head being larger (sticks out further) than the rivet, but I used black torx head bolts so not very prominent.

 

 

[TomB]

Thanks Neil.  That's my plan - I've got loads of black dome/button head M5 bolts that Ive used for the front of the scuttle.  So no problems attaching the rivnut to the curved surface of the chassis tube?  What Im nervous about is committing to drilling a 7mm hole in the tube for the rivnut, only to find it wont take then leaving me with a hole too big for a rivet.  I've already drilled the scuttle, so haven't got much wriggle room. 

[Blue C7]

I don’t know the thickness of tube at the side but would it not be possible to thread it and then use a button head screw 

[TomB]

Drill hole & run a M5 tap through it?  Tube is probably 2mm thick.