Rain Gutter Removal on 411

[californiabristol]

I am well under way stripping the paint now and would like to know if anyone has experience removing the rain gutters
on the roof? I am hoping they can be removed "easily."

Thanks,

Greg Woog

[408VIKING]

You have to "dig out" some of the screws. They are countersunk and hidden under putty. At least in the door openings. Though some are visible at the rear (see picture). Remove the paint down to the metal and you will see small craters of putty that hide the screws. You will also find a few rivets at the ends.
When you have removed the gutter from the body will find a yellow compund . It´s the Duralac anti corrosion compund. I guess all seams between aluminum and steel on a Bristol are treated with Duralac. You find Duralac at most Lotus spare part suppliers or Marine shops.

[LarryW]

I've removed four of these screws so far on my 409 and uncovered several more. It's not difficult if you use a magnet to find them. However they are really difficult to screw out. Is there a hidden nut attached to them? Did you remove all of the wooden side trim before you attempted to remove these to be able to access those nuts? I know on the bottom area of the rear window frames, there are tiny nuts that required a 4mm socket to remove.

[LarryW]

All but eight of the 23 screws are out on one side. The last ones won't give. I can see now that removing the wood strips should be straightforward once the rain gutters are out.

[californiabristol]

I followed 408Viking's advice but found it impossible to remove a good number of screws, and sacrificed the metal around those. I ran out of patience, and figured the holes could be repaired.

Unfortunately my car is completely apart and in storage now due to a job move\house sale.

Attached is a PDF with several pictures.

Regards

[californiabristol]

Attached is an additional photo showing some screws threaded into the steel cantrail section.

[LarryW]

Thank you for the pictures. It does try your patience.

I did attempt to drill one screw to remove with an easy-out. That might be my only option at this point.

Hopefully the screws on the other side of the car will be less trouble.

Larry

[LarryW]

Left side successfully removed without drama ... it literally fell off when I drilled out the last rivet. 22 out of 25 screwed out. Three had to be drilled out. Now time for the wood.