(Author: ikom Saturday April 10, 2004,
Apr,10,2004Apr,10,2004
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Saturday April 10, 2004
My son and I took the rest of the body panels off the chassis today - we carefully marked the junctions between chassis and various panels with painter's masking tape and used a ruler to mark and align register marks wherever possible before we began the task of drilling out the factory rivets or removing fasteners. I intend to insert Nutserts or Rivnuts (some type of threaded inserts) in the factory rivet locations so that the body panels can be reinstalled in the exact same positions as the factory when pre-fitted.
We began by first cutting the wide factory masking tape that secured the windshield to the cockpit, carefully removed it and stored it in an upright position in a safe place. We wanted to make sure that the windshield does not splay or distort during its sojourn in storage.
The doors were next to come off and required a deep 13mm socket coupled with a variety of extensions to undo the bolts securing the large primary hinge fasteners since they are hidden deep within the door skin recesses. The door shocks had to be carefully pried off their ball joints by sliding their catch locks forward. The upper Heim joint hinges had to be unscrewed from the fiberglass before the doors could be persuaded to come off the cockpit. The screws holding the Heim joints are tapped directly into the fiberglass and need care to remove so as not to damage their relatively soft threads. Mental note: buy some metric Helicoil or other proprietary hardware in case these threads ever need to be re-tapped and reinforced.
The cockpit was next but appeared to be very tightly attached to the side pods, almost to the extent that I thought we must have missed a hidden fastener somewhere because of its continued intransigence. Rather than risk damaging a panel, I sent off an email to BigAl1 in Toronto (who had disassembled his GTR body a few weeks before) and he promptly replied that his GTR body had been equally difficult to disassemble and to persevere with the tugging and pulling. Armed with this comforting knowledge we continued to tug away at the remaining pieces and finally managed to get them separated and off the chassis.
BigAl1 has been a great email friend and source of information since before I made a firm commitment to purchase the GTR. He also fabricated a wonderful extension for my steering column so that I can use a production turn signal; headlight switch, headlight dimmer and wiper switch stalk assembly on the car. I have bounced emails off him every so often when I required information or reassurance about some aspect of the car.
The cockpit is very flimsy, when it is no longer braced and supported by the side pods and I hastily constructed a support framework of scrap one by two lumber in order to reinforce it during its move to join the other inhabitants of the living room. I was afraid the very small roof section appeared too flimsy and could easily crack or distort while it was moved. In addition since I was going to store it on edge adequate support bracing was definitely needed to keep everything in position. All of the bolts, screws, washers, shims etc. were put back in place exactly as the factory had placed them (before anything was dismantled).
Now everything is safely stored in a corner of the living room except the doors and side pods, which found a home in the garage.
