It's quite nice to do things how I (or Caterham) should have done them in the first place. For example, the scuttle comes from the factory riveted to the bulkhead. When I came around to removing the windscreen wiper mechanism, I managed to get the two screws retaining it out, but the tube connecting the spindles was ziptied to absolutely everything. The only way not to risk snipping the loom was to whip the whole scuttle off. Not a major problem, as I wanted to make it removable for the future (e.g. for painting) at some point anyway. So out came the drill, and after removing the heater blanking panel and 30 rivets, I managed to wrestle the scuttle free. Not completely free, though, as my shift lights are wired through it... Typical! This made accessing the wiper mechanism much easier and it was out in a jiffy.

When it came to refitting, I ordered some alloy M4 rivnuts and a tool so that I could just whip out some screws next time I wanted to remove the scuttle rather than drilling loads of rivets. It should also look more professional, but will weigh more... A price I'm willing to pay! I had to enlarge the wholes on the bulkhead to 6mm all the way round, and the tool made easy going of installing the rivnuts. The only minor issues were the last two rivnuts, the ones right by the chassis rail. They were so low, the tool couldn't get square on. Time to get my Heath Robinson Manual out, and using a screw from an old fuel hose clip, some kind of strange fixing that I guess was an M5 knurled knob, and some washers, I managed to fashion a make shift puller. I used mole grips on the rivnut, held it all firm, and tighted it all up with a screw driver - lo and behold, it worked! That's a rare occurrance for me!

All I need now are some alloy M4 screws and washers. Pro Bolt seem to be the popular choice, but they are quite pricey - the number I need will mean spending a good £30 on screws alone! The price we pay to avoid galvanic corrosion... Still, best do it properly.

I also put some rivnuts in for the battery tray - I was using self tappers before, but the rivnuts should make a much neater looking and more secure installation.

Now that heater blanking panel I mentioned... Caterham supply a HUGE L-shaped piece of aluminium to cover up the heater duct hole and most of the bulkhead. There is no reason it needs to be this big. So out with the hacksaw! It is now considerably smaller, and incorporates the battery master switch. A few rivnuts in the bulkhead (I love these things) and the blanking panel can now be removed easily if I need to get to the switch and don't want to crawl around under the dash. Ideal!

It's a bit wiggly, but I can clean this up at a later date if I manage to get the right tools. I reckon I can also get it considerably smaller, and thus lighter!

One last job for the day was to remove the handbrake lever handle to replace with the fancy carbon fibre one made by Carsten. It was a nightmare to wrestle off, and after much cursing and aching forearms, it came free. The Carbon lever unfortunately doesn't slide straight on - where the lever is pressed in to a tube, it is left as a tear drop shape. I shall be getting the file out and putting a groove in the collars, as this shape will help stop it spinning, and I'll file the button end of the lever so the 'client-facing' collar is unmolested. As I couldn't face doing much more, I decided to bring both levers home and weigh them! The results are in...

67g for the standard rubber. Pretty light, this will be hard to beat...

38g! Great result. Saving 29g for £50 has to be some kind of record! Regardless, it will look much nicer than the original item, and the car will appear much more 'finished' than before. That's worth it I reckon. I'll have to remember to remove the wedding ring or wear gloves, don't want to scratch it, now...

Next up, I have to tackle the lack of threadlock on the Apollo breather hose take off in the cam cover. I completely forgot last time! I have some new crush washers that should help nicely. Over and out.