[DeTomaso] A better way to attach firewall hatch?

[Thomas Tornblom]

Are you sure they are M5? On 9321 they are M6.

I replaced the bolts with M6 Allen head screws and use a ball head screw 
driver to attach the screws. The screws sticks to the head of the screw 
driver and it is easy to find the hole and attach.

The threads in the bulkhead were very worn and when I had the engine out 
I welded new weld nuts on the engine side.

Thomas

Larry Finch skrev 2013-07-21 08:26:
> All,
>
> I've always found the little M5 metric hex head bolts used to attach the metal firewall hatch to be less than user-friendly.
>
> I'm thinking of using Allen head cap screws instead of the stock hex head bolts, and installing them from the engine side through the captured nuts in the firewall surround. Then you would be mounting the hatch to a group of M5 studs. Instead of small, easily dropped, and difficult to handle M5 nuts, I would be using M5 coupler nuts which are about an inch long.
>
> Now some of you will want to point out the restriction of the two small locating tabs on the bottom of the hatch which index into their respective slots. I would just cut them off as I think that bottom edge of the steel hatch is strong enough to maintain a good seal on the quarter-inch closed-cell foam I'm using. If not, you could always add some Nutserts on the bottom flange and add two more studs to hold everything tight.
>
> So, has anyone done anything similar to this on the hatch?
>
> Any comments or improvements on my idea of studs and coupler nuts?
>
> Larry
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Real life:   Thomas Törnblom             Email:    thomas at hax.se
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