Tonneau fasteners.

[allegro]

New SLR ! I undid the tonneau fixing, the one by the wheel arch at the bottom and it pulled out of the body work. This was due to it being incorrectly fitted at Caterham. Caterham have offered to put this right, but will need the car for a morning, as the seats must come out and the inside ally skin must be removed to get to the back of the rivet.

Does anybody have a temporary fix to get me by until it goes in for a service. This will save me a 150mile round trip.

 

 

Maybe a plastic blind rivet question.gif I dont know but any advise is welcome.

 

Andy Mac

 

 

[tgracing]

Al,

Is this on the passenger side or the driver's ? If it's the driver's I wouldn't bother as it's not whilst you are moving. (Therefore, I assume it's the passeneger side). If so, I recommend the racer's favourite fixing gadget - tape.

 

Cheers, DM.

[allegro]

I did not make myself clear. Its taken the popper out of the ally skin, leaving an unsightly hole of burred metal. I need an alternative method of securing the fixing back to the body work.

 

Any suggestions question.gif

 

Andy Mac

 

 

[tgracing]

Al,

If it's not burred it too much you could get a rivnut fitted and then screw a popper base into that. I've never done it but there are Blatchatters who have. The conventional wisdom is tha the rivnut must be absolutely dead straight. I'd search the blatchat archives for 'rivnut' and see what it comes up with.

 

If Caterham are going to fix it, I'd guess that's what they'd do rather than fit a whole new alu side.

 

Cheers, DBo.

[SLR No.77]

Take the popper base to a good industrial tool suppliers, then check what's available in rivet sizes where the rivet head will still fit the popper "dish", but with a bigger diameter "barrel" to fit your nice new oversize hole. I think Caterham use 4mm standard head rivets, therefore possibly a 5mm with a small head will suffice. Then drill out the hole in the popper to accomodate the new rivet!

 

Stu.

 

Otherwise:

1. Gaffers tape over the hole - weatherproofing of chassis sorted;

2. Gaffers tape to attach tonneau - weatherproofing of seats sorted.

[JampJ]

Take my advise,and leave it for caterham to fix.mine also came out,and the only way for a

secure fix is to put a washer at the back of the rivet hence the need to take off the inside panel.putting a larger rivet in may just pull out again making matters worse.Why CATERHAM don't fit these at the factory using a backing washer i don't know.

CHEERS C7 POW.

[allegro]

Thanks for the advise. I was concerned that what ever I did, I could make it worse. So it went to Caterham and they put a washer behind it and did it properly.

If they did this during assembly it would have saved them 2 hours and me 4. mad.gif