[DeTomaso] A better way to attach firewall hatch?

[Tom Shinrock]

 When I got 5186 26 years ago I replaced the bolts/nuts that fasten the firewall cover.   I can't remember why I did it but there must have been some issues with the hardware that was originally there.  I went to the hardware store and bought some square nuts and some matching bolts.  I used a screw driver to open up the metal "cages" that held in the nuts in the firewall and inserted the new square nuts and reformed the metal to close the "cages".  The square nuts fit pretty good in the cages and floated enough so that you could line the nuts up with the holes in the hatch cover.  I usually can get the nuts aligned by just moving the bolt around by hand but sometimes I have to use a phillips screwdrive to align the nut with the hole.  The only issue I had is that the 1/2 inch bolt head got a little too close to the turned up lip of the edge of the hatch cover and made for a tight fit when I put a socket on the bolt.   I just bent the lip out next to the hole with some pliers to give more room between the bolt head and the lip to let me get my socket on.   Not an elegant solution but pretty simple.

Tom 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Finch <fresnofinches at aol.com>
To: detomaso <detomaso at poca.com>
Sent: Sun, Jul 21, 2013 1:27 am
Subject: [DeTomaso] A better way to attach firewall hatch?


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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