Support Team Shaun_E Posted December 3, 2012 Support Team Share Posted December 3, 2012 I need to shorten the passenger footwell in order to accomodate a dry sump tank. I have ordered the new end plate from Caterham but has anyone got any tips on how to hack the existing one off and how much to hack off. Pictures of a shortened footwell would be great. Thanks, Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrightpayne Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 Shaun, Is your engine in or out? If out its simply a case of drilling out the rivets and it will pop out in one piece. I did mine with the engine in and had to saw along the top and half way down the end so I could collapse it and pass through into the car. The panel supplied with my DS kit was only folded on 2 edges - should be 3. Took a while to figure out. Just bent it up on the bench by screwing down a piece of wood to clamp it and create the fold. S3 std width dedion chassis. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support Team Shaun_E Posted December 3, 2012 Author Support Team Share Posted December 3, 2012 Engine is out. I haven't looked that closely but if it's just drilling out rivets that is great. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mankee Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 All the rivets for my footwell were on the inside of the car. But my engine was on the floor, so I went mad and cut a great big hole in the panel so that I could get to the rivets from the engine bay, which made life easier. I had a new panel (actually had two made) folded up by a local fabricator to match exactly the existing rivet holes, so it was a fairly straightforward fit. The Caterham panel looks like it would fit slightly differently to how the old panel came out. Well, on my chassis at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Support Team Shaun_E Posted December 3, 2012 Author Support Team Share Posted December 3, 2012 I had a closer look this evening and it looks like I can drill all the rivets out to get the end panel off - some are engine bay side, some are cockpit side but I can get to them all one way or another. Do you then have to cut the side panels to length? On my car the inner side skin and the tunnel skin are one piece to the end of the footwell. I guess I could leave them as is and just rivet the new end panel in the correct position but I think it would make sense to at least trim the tunnel panel to the right length. If anyone has a photo that would really help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrightpayne Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 IIRC I didn't need to shorten any side panels just the tunnel carpet. Just drill out the rivets and pop it out - all will become clear! It should come out as a box in one piece. I got some short hex drive drills from machine mart which proved useful code 060235713. Ian Edited by - Wrightpayne on 3 Dec 2012 22:57:35 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrightpayne Posted December 3, 2012 Share Posted December 3, 2012 YHM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain chaos Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 When I did mine I bought a panel from arch that was a reduced end panel with angle. This allowed the passenger a little more leg room (allows feet to rest forward) but still provided enough room for my VX headers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k.russell Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 this is what i did 😬 you should be able to pick the album up from this here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Simon Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 Short foot well pan drawings here. Fits 95 and older DD chassis with the fully boxed passenger foot well extension. Some of the newer chassis have an interior panel that may have to be trimmed a bit as it formed part of the extension. edited to add: The foot well pan in these drawings actually extends about 1" forward of the scuttle shelf chassis tubes. Keep this in mind if you are real tight on space. Edited by - Bob Simon on 4 Dec 2012 12:55:20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Plato Posted December 4, 2012 Share Posted December 4, 2012 I took to the footwell with a jig saw and basically cut off the end of it. This then allows access to the internal rivets. These internal rivetshad their heads knocked off with a chisel. The sections then lifted off. Squirt waxoil down the old rivet holes to capture and hold any old rivet heads. Then I made a simple panel myself to blank the hole. Held in place with a bunch of rivets in the original holes and some silicon sealant to prevent water ingress. Then I made a plate to place the tank on the lower chassis rails and tubes with a section of 2mm rubber ontop. Then a big jubilee clip wraps around the tank and is riveted onto the chassis tube up where the battery used to live. The battery was moved to the center of the scuttle . All as per K russels method and photos above about 4 hours work in all. Edited by - Dave Jackson on 4 Dec 2012 14:20:00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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