[HAM] Felt replacement on C2

[David Anderson]

Hi Joe,

They aren't actually riveted; they're held on by "carriage bolts."  
The nuts are on the inside, and they are a royal PITA to get to.  
Replacing these bolts with screws you could remove from the front was  
an excellent decision by Hammond.

You have a couple of options: remove enough playing keys to get to  
the nuts and remove them (keep the spacers and remember where they  
go), or remove all the screws (about 22) on the underside of the  
manuals that fasten on the L-shaped piece of steel that the front  
strips attach to. These screws can be stuck tight, but if you're  
lucky, they will come loose without too much persuasion. Again, keep  
careful track of where various spacers are.

At that point you can decide whether to put the front strips back on  
with the original carriage bolts, or you can use some black machine  
screws instead. I used new screws on my CV, and they work just fine.

David A.

On May 18, 2007, at 2:54 PM, Joe Procopio wrote:

> I was hoping to replace both the upstop and downstop felts in my  
> manuals
> ('53 C2) until I realized that I've got the riveted-on style front  
> rails...
> I've never raised the manuals on this before, but was willing to try
> it.. even have the new felts ready... until I realized that the
> frontrails arent screwed on.. they're riveted...
>
> Anything I can actually do?
>