T-Panel Rattle
Joe Angell
Now that my DeLorean’s exhaust is quieter, I started to notice other noises that shouldn’t be there. This time it was the T-panel. It would vibrate at idle and just generally be annoying.
(There should be an embedded video above showing this process. If that doesn’t work, you can click here to see it on YouTube.)
The corners of the T-panel were rattling, which was pretty easy to simulate by tapping it with my fingers.
The T-panel hooks under the windshield trim on the front. On the back, four tabs are bent over a plastic trim. The three screws in the trim piece hold it against the T-panel, applying upward pressure to keep it in place.
One of the tabs from the T-panel clipped around the trim, above the screw that I installed after I fixed where the screw mounts.
My trim only had the center screw in it. I was able to easily replace the screw on the right, but whatever the one on the left goes into was simply missing — there were no threads to screw into.
I failed to figure out what this is from the Parts Manual. It might be part of the roof box, but I’m really not sure, so I decided not to mess with it.
Instead, I designed an printed a clip that fits over the bracket and adds a new set of threads to screw into. The clip is printed in ASA plastic to better survive being outside. An M4 heat set insert provides the metal threads.
The clip is so simply that it only took a few minutes to print on my Ankermake M5. I think it took longer to heat up the printer than it did to actually print.
The modeled clip to replace whatever was originally there.
The printed clip with the heat set insert installed.
The clip simply slides over the top of the bracket. The screw goes through the trim, then the open side of the clip, then through the hole in the bracket, and finally into tge threaded insert, lock the plastic trim and the clip into place.
The clip mounted on the bracket, before installing the trim piece.
This seems to have worked — the only a small amount of play in the T-panel now (probably because the trim is cracked, but not enough to be a real issue), and the rattle is compeltely gone.
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