With the prop shaft bolts tightened and the knee panels fitted, I can now fit the tunnel cover panel, and finish off the side panel pop rivets. During my 360R build none of the side panel pop rivets where fitted, but it seems Caterham have now taken pity on the kit builder only leaving a handful still to fit.

  • Tunnel to be covered
  • Tunnel cover fitted ready to rivet

The tunnel panel was a simple panel to fit. I choose the side with the best finish, and made sure that side faced upwards. Then I put rivets in all the holes, ready to rivet.

  • Centre and corner rivets fitted
  • Tunnel cover fitted

I started with the middle two on the cross brace, and then rivets at each corner. To complete this task, I worked back towards the centre. This is a simple job with my air-powered pop riveter. I purchased this for my 360R build when there were hundreds of rivets to fit. I am not sure it would be on my shopping list now considering that only a few rivets need to be fitted. A manual pop riveter would also do the job, however, I suggest you practice fitting rivets (by drilling a few holes into some scrap metal and fitting rivets), because it is easy to ‘bounce’ and damage the finish of black-painted rivets.

  • Rivets ready to fit in the side panel
  • Some holes needed to be opened up

I then started to put rivets into the side panels. It is worth noting that some of the holes needed to be opened out using a drill.

  • All rivets ready
  • Some were already fitted on the left-hand side

With all the rivets in place, I decided to work from the bottom up, mainly because on one side three side panel rivets had already been fitted by Caterham in the bottom on the side panel.

Tools Used

  • Air powered pop riveter
  • Drill