Treated aluminum panels - When to drill and when to rivet?

Hello again,

I had my delivery back in June and still don't have enough pieces to get started (no front spindles, no rear bushings, no springs, no fuel tank, etc), which is driving me a bit crazy. In an effort to keep my sanity, I've made myself busy and gave some TLC to all the aluminum panels (powder coating seemed a bit too expensive). I'm pretty happy with the result, it pretty much removes any previous scratches and hides any future ones, as well as eliminates any annoying smudges from sweat and handling. Here was my process and some photos:

1. Clean panels with lacquer thinner
2. Wetsand with water and dish soap in only one direction, with 120 grit first then 220
3. Repeat with red-colored scotch Scotch-Brite pad
4. Wash with water
5. Wipe with WD40
6. After drilling the holes, apply Sharkhide in only one direction with a flatfold cloth diaper (believe me, you don't want to use anything else)

Attachment 152049 Attachment 152050 Attachment 152051

Now, to my question: I've seen a lot of discussion in the build threads as to when to drill and rivet the panels but it looked like in general, it was best to wait as much as possible so you have room to work. Since I'm already going a bit cuckoo, I figured I would try to get some of these finally installed. Any guidance as to which ones I can safely drill and rivet now?

That looks really nice!

You could drill and cleco all of them in place now. I wouldn't permanently attach anything other than the F-panels, firewall, and PS footbox panels. Anything else will be in the way at this point.

Be patient with riveting. My rule of thumb is, don’t attach permanently until not doing so prevents you from moving forward. I agree with Johnk. I kept the remaining panels cleco’d until I was ready to apply lizard skin. Same with wheels and side pipes. It’s great to put them on but after you take a few photos, pull them off since they just get in the way.
-Steve

you went a bit overboard w/ the panels, I see...the only visible ones will be the ones in the engine bay. The rest are covered w/ sound deadener/carpet. I sprayed truck bed liner on my front/rear elephant ears. I also found out after the fact that backs of the rear cockpit panels form the front of the rear wheel wells. I'd consider spraying w/ truck liner as well if you want your wheel wells to be black. I had to tape this off and spray it after I had already installed the panels.
you can probably start assembling your pedal box, run your hard brake and fuel lines. start laying out your electric looms. I put in my F panels, cockpit floors, PS footbox and my DS footbox pretty early on. Keep the outside and top of the DS footbox for the end as you'll likely need access up until the very end.
you can start assembly of your brakes, shocks, e-brake as well. If adding a heater, cut those holes in the firewall first before attaching it. Otherwise it can go on early as well. Measure twice for the heater b/c the template in the manual is not accurate.

Concur with all the comments. I like the look of raw aluminum so I used Sharkhide as well. Five years on they still look like they were prepped yesterday. The firewall and the tops of the foot boxes are all that remains exposed. In fact the Sharkhide may interfere with the application of bed liner and other coatings?

Agree with the fellas about clecos instead of final riveting. When I was waiting on certain parts I drilled....and drilled....and drilled.... That kept me super busy. You really do not realize how much drilling there is until you get into the middle of it. That will eat up a lot of time. Then you can cleco in panels as needed for fitment and mocking up without final install getting in the way for other subassemblies . BY THE WAY, I love your panels. I did similar to you. I love the brushed look with shark hide. I did my technique a little different as I had a certain look in my mind I wanted ( used a 2x4 as a guide with a sanding block in one direction and WD40 for lube).
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1623884160
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...9&d=1615589123

There is a lot of good advice here.

I was in the same boat 6 months ago. We were missing wire a few big things and so we decided to build what we could and did the entire mechanical portion of the build out of order.

I read and re-read the manual and other build threads to help me figure out what I could do out of order.

We didn't have the spindles or lower control arms for the front, so we completely skipped the front end after we installed the F-panels. We then moved on to the rear and put the brakes on the solid rear end. We had enough control arms to put the rear end in but we couldn't mount the shocks due to missing pieces.

Then we moved on to the cockpit aluminum. We drilled and used clecos to hold them in place. We riveted a bunch that we figured wouldn't get in the way. We also did the pedal box at the sand time.

We then did brake hard lines as best we could with our missing pieces.

We even installed the engine and transmission before the front end or steering because we didn't have the parts for the front end.

We just ended up reading the manual and build threads to try to figure out what we could do with the parts we had at the time. We also kept a list of jobs that were only partly completed so we could return when the parts were delivered.

Good luck with the build. Waiting for parts is painful, but they will come!