Dashboard Surround Removal

[Marty V8]

I am in the process of removing the whole of the dash from my Griffith, as I intend to get nasty with the heater box and matrix bypass piping in an attempt to get cold air into the cockpit. I also hope to put in some sort of heat mat on the inside of the bulkhead to further reduce the heat soak from the engine bay and the ventilation channels which are part of the bulkhead.

I have got the dash panel out and disconnected already, but would be grateful for advice on how to remove the dash surround. I can see that there are a number of bolts which fasten the dash top to the bulhead, and the extreme right and left hand side ones are nuts and bolts which I can get to both sides of.

Are the remainder of the bolts screwed into captive nuts behind the bulkhead, or do I have to take apart most of the rest of the car to get to the nuts on the other side of the bulkhead. I would rather not start to undo these if I cant get them tightened up again without having to dismantle the car into its componenet parts. I'm just hoping that TVR didnt start with the dash surround nuts and proceed to build the whole car around them.

Any advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Ive also stuck this on the TVRCC website.

Cheers

Marty

[Ant.]

Only the two outer pins have nuts, the others go into nut inserts set into the GRP.

[Marty V8]

Cheers Ant,

That was exactly the answer I was hoping for.

Many Thanks

Marty

[dnb]

Marty V8 said:

I'm just hoping that TVR didnt start with the dash surround nuts and proceed to build the whole car around them.

I've said similar things many times about my Griff. In this case, Ant's right. All the centre nuts are captive.

[Bonefish]

Just in case, though hopefully won't happen. I had the captive nuts turning in the bulkhead when last removing a dash comb. Removed the wipers and the pop rivetted panel to get access to the back and knocked them out with a drift. The captive nuts on mine were plastic so replaced them with rivnut style fittings bonded back in.

[Marty V8]

Bonefish said:

Just in case, though hopefully won't happen. I had the captive nuts turning in the bulkhead when last removing a dash comb. Removed the wipers and the pop rivetted panel to get access to the back and knocked them out with a drift. The captive nuts on mine were plastic so replaced them with rivnut style fittings bonded back in.

Thanks for that mate. I was wondering how much mining I would have to do if it all went pear shaped. Fingers crossed it'll be okay when it goes back together - tonight hopefully, especially as its going to the Dealers for warranty work tomorrow morning....