Scuttle removal?

[Timothy Keith-Lucas]

It took me only 15 minutes to remove my windscreen and scuttle last week when flipping a switch resulted in bunches of Lucas electricity (smoke) escaped my under-panel wiring, given that last year I converted all those rivets to rivet nuts. Do allow me to suggest using stainless steel rather than aluminum nuts. They grip tighter than the aluminum version. That means that they are less likely to spin when you tighten the bolt.  A spinning rivet nut is a real PITA, because it is really difficult to remove/replace. As a related point, I also recommend using a drill with adjustable torque, set pretty low, to tighten the bolts, as additional protection against spinning one.

[toldfield]

Thank you all for the great advice and help.  As I was preparing to drill out the first rivet a friend of mine asked if he could take a look.  He obviously understands this stuff better than I, and can get under the dash.  In about 20 minutes he had the problem resolved and everything working.  It was a "Swiss cheese" issue, with a couple of little issues that added up to the failure of the gauges.  

 

I will get to the rivets towards the end of the year, after the LUG event in Salt Lake City.

 

Thanks again.

 

Tom