Tools needed:

1. Torq T40
2. Plastic pry tools
3. Needle nose pliers

Suggested Tools

1. Magnetic pickup tool
2. Inspection mirror
3. Latex/Nitrile gloves
4. Duct tape
5. 7 & 10mm nut driver
6. Mild Threadlock

The suggested tools above, are from my experience so far. I've had more than a dozen bolts, screws, & nuts that were just beyond finger tight. So I'd imagine in about 20k mile a couple of these will back off, fall down in between panel & rattle everytime you hit a speed bump. As I work on the car I'm casually checking fasteners for tightness & applying some purple threadlock where possible. Use your best judgement.

I suggest gloves are because you'll be rubbing up against fiberglass & it's pretty itchy. This is what the duct tape is for. If you find yourself itching, pull off a foot or two, heat it up with a torch or heat gun. Then quickly lay the hot tape on the skin. Then gently pressing against the skin to get a good bond, wait about 10 secs. for the adhesive to cool & then pull it off.

The needle nose pliers, Inspection mirror, & pick up magnet are for those little spring steel clips that hold the interior panels. Sometimes they fall off & into small places. Additionally, it's in
your best interest to check the clips & bend any of them that need reshaping. If you'll take the time to look at every panel clip &
make sure it's close to it's original shape, you can remove & reinstall several times & never have a loose panel or one that's lost it's fit. Oh & I almost forgot a small blunt torch or a hot air pencil used in soldering work really well if you screw up & whiten some of your plastic. Go slow & heat up (not melting) the area that's whitened, & it'll just disappear.

Superglue & epoxy for plastics, the super glue uses acetone as a primer & it works well, but Loctite for plastics is 2nd to none, once it's cured it has a death grip on most plastics.

Removal

1. Remove all 4 D-ring plastic covers using plastic the pry tools, pry from the backside where the D-rings are hinged. Once they're popped off, remove the Torq screw with the T40 & remove from vehicle. I keep metal parts & plastic parts separate, more specifically, I place all my plastics with the finished side face up & place them on something like a beach towel




2. Using your pry tools lift up the lower sides of the roof panel perch (yeah, I made that up, all by myself...). The spring clips insert at a 45° angle you will be pulling towards the center of the rear
glass when removing either perch. Once the lower clips start to release take another plastic pry tool & lift the upper sides. Usually this piece will release it's 4 clips in order of lower rear, upper rear, lower front, upper front.Whenever one of the clips releases leave the pry tool in place to prevent it from reinserting itself. This is piece is the hardest of all the panel pieces.









3. Removing the rear sides panels. If you notice this contours the wheel well, if you were inside the vehicle.you'd need to start at about the 10 o'clock position for the driver side & the 2 o'clock position for the passenger side, relating to the wheel well shaped part of the panel.





Once this begins releasing stick you hand inside the panel where the perch panel was removed earlier. Just sticking you hand inside will release these clips, otherwise you might need a small push to get them to release.



At this point you have 3 more clips that will release pretty easy & the finally 4 clip is very close to the front edge of the panel, be careful, don't yank or remove the panel by twisting. Take not of the picture above regarding how the panel clips are angled. When reinstalling the panels, give the clips a quick look, make sure they're fully seated against the plastic tabs.



4. Now both side panels are removed, the carpet can come out with some finesse. You start over the battery by pushing & bunching the carpet & letting is bow upward in the middle just enough you can get you hands underneath it in the main area of the carpet, not just that corner where the battery is underneath. That corner is really weak & will tear if your not careful.



5. Okay you now have the carpet coming up on the passenger side, now go to the driver's side, open the storage compartment & using a plastic pry tool, lift & separate the 3 carpet spring clips that attach to a beauty ring that part of the compartment itself. See the picture, I took on this, it may not become apparent until you begin lifting the passenger side of the carpet.






6. You got the carpet up in the back, the carpet can come out & that's about it! Run your electrical wire for radar & reinstall in reverse order.



The rest of my photos are in a link here below, they're all in public folder directory so feel free to browse all you want...

More Photos....

Any questions PM me & I'll try to help anyway I can.

Regards,
Wormwood

 

Thanks for the post ... very helpful

 

This is an excellent post!

 

Good time to put some dyno matt down.

 

Thanks for sharing

 

Great write up! This should definitely be added to the DIY sticky!

 

Really dumbass engineering that the rear fuse block isn't much more easily accessible, if you ask me.......

 

~Stingray
You mentioned Dynamat, I've never used that stuff before, it's always been ridiculously expensive at Best Buy & they'd never have enough. How well does it work?
All I'm doing to cut dust cover material or Cambric it's the grey or black fabric that's stapled to the bottom of your furniture, it's similar to Tyvek. I use a couple of pieces & sandwich in polyfill or furniture batten & sew the edges & quilt it on the 45's around 3" apart. This is stuff is feather light & custom cut to fit the C7 (after I finish my templates.
You know in corporate aviation, we install these little tuning forks in between the airframe & the pressure vessel of the occupants. Although it's a little different, since aircraft tend to resonate & the forks are cut to that specific freq. range. However, we also have QuietFlite which is active noise cancelling. 19 speakers & 21 microphones & it's work REALLY well, the only problem is your still hearing the noise you just don't realize it & it's more like twice the noise so it just as detrimental to your hearing & you feel stil feel like you've been on a loud plane for hours afterwards. So I guess the best method is the direction we're go with the deadening....


Wormwood

 

Thanks for posting great information

 

 

Okay, except for putting Dynomat down, why would anybody ever want to do all this? PLEASE don't tell me I gotta go through this "goat rope" just to reach the fuse panel...

 

Very helpful. Great write up.

 

Thank you for the post. Very clear. Excellent pictures.
I agree, Dynamat is too pricey. I have heard good things about B-Quiet. Looks like the same type of material as Dynamat but much cheaper.

 

A little late for me. I did it without removing anything, just lifting up the rear section enough to get to the fuse block.
My hands are healing fine.

 

Was it really that hard just to pull up the carpet? I really will need to get at that fuse panel.

BTW, how hard would it have been for GM to just put a small door over that panel? Yeah, I know...stupid question...

 

Great pictorial!

One question - have you tried removing the rear most trim (subwoofer panel on the Z51)? If so, is it just attached with the two hook/screw combos and the standard press-in snaps?

 

I have used the Dynomat before. I needed it to deaden the sound of the Hurst Shifter when installed in a 2011 Challenger R/T. For some reason that shifter being a much firmer and more direct connection with Transmission will amplify all the tranny gear and bearing noise making it incredibly noisey in the car. So many of us owners who performed this mod used dynomat wrapped around every non moving arm of the shifter, and on the underside of the housing cover and I have to tell you I was amazed at how well it worked. I would have had to remove the hurst shifter if that dynomat had not worked so well because the noise was ridiculously loud.

If you use it, plan on using allot of it and ignoring the expense. A great source for this stuff is any Auto Car Audio Sales and installation center. Hope this helps.

 

Nick,

Thanks I got some, fixing to start rolling it down!!!


Ken,
I thought I had a picture or two of that back panel, to answer the question there are 6 of those spring clips & the 2 net hooks.

I can tell you that is the one panel, that I broke one of those plastic mounting tabs for the spring clips. I broke the bottom left tab. When you have the carpet out & begin removing the back panel the top tabs pop out fairly easy but the bottom ones require you hand underneath it. Just don't let the panel hang or rest under it's own weight with the bottom clips still engaged, the panel will want to fall forward & it'll twist those bottom plastics tabs with the spring clips. I'm sorta guessing that's why one of mine was broke.

Alternatively you may try pulling from the bottom first & then the top. The benefit to starting at the top is I can use a long slotted screwdriver & flashlight to push on those metal clips so they'll release almost by themselves.

Wormwood

 

Thanks. I'm running some coax cables from the license plate area into the cabin so I think I only need to unsnap the top of the panel (that is under the weatherstripping) in order to gain enough access to do that so I'll be careful about not over stressing the bottom edge tabs.

Thanks for the reply

 

If you get a chance when you are putting down the B-Quiet, more pics would be great.
Also, what are you using? Dampener and absorber; which ones.

Thanks, Nick