Lower rear wings replacement

[Neilriser]

Hi all, i am nearing the end of a year long welding marathon on a 1200 rebuild replaceing/rebuildind all the known culprits,floors,doorskins,tread plates,boot floor etc etc. i now have to replace the rear lower wings,the old have been removed and have sourced two good ones from an old tub,my problem is i cant get a good enough access to the upper wing lip to clean it good enough for my spotweld to weld this joint,my question is has anyone bolted this upper join? it would mean that seam sealer could be added first before tightening which would be an advantge,i accept that the side seam[b post] and the tail light would still need to be spotwelded.Bearing in mind a lot of vehicles from that period were bolt on panels.interested on thoughts please. Regards Neil

[Hogie]

Hi Neil,
            haven't a clue about that car or that area but mechanical fixing is often far better than welding when it comes to corrosion etc.

If you do go down the mechanical fastening route consider -
Rivnuts  -  once the nut is attached (on the wing off the car) then it is simply a spanner or ratchet job.

Pop rivets have a poor name for quality attachment but can nonetheless be very good - good access required to pul the rivet down.

There are many other bolt/collar fixings that may be worth a look but probably dearer than the above - cherry, Huck etc.

Roger

[ahebron]

Adhesive?
A lot of current vehicles now bond dissimilar materials in the construction of the body.
Modern glues are incredibly strong and I believe some are UV cured plus have the advantage of no heat so panel prep wont be disturbed.
I have no idea of what type of adhesive.

Adrian

[bim]

sika flex or tiger seal you can also paint over these
i have used sika flex on a previous restoration with brilliant results
ps bu**er to get of fingers
bim

[pimp my vit]

I did it, I drilled holes where the spot welds were and puddle welded from topside of the the lip inside the boot, cleaned up the underside with a flap wheel.My main advice would be mind out for distortion around the wheel arch as it seemed to pull in quite a bit.

[MarkB]

I replace the lower rear wing on a Vitesse several years ago now, and cleaned the lip of the upper wing section using a blow lamp and screw driver to dig and scrape out all the Bitumen sealant /deadening that was there. I then used a wire brush to get back to metal before drilling and plug welding with a Mig. As I recall the main problem was clamping the two sections together as there is a 90 degree return on the top section, I did have the correct type welding clamps but wasn't happy with the fit as they opened up the seam when locked down so I used self tappers every other hole, plug welded the holes removed the screws and finished off the welding. Both surfaces must be dead flush and clamped very tightly together, as if you get molten metal between the two surfaces you have problems and lots of work to rectify. The pattern rear wing I purchased was a diabolical fit but thats another story.

If I was to do the job again today I would probably use one of the modern panel adhesives. I spoke to a chap after fitting mine who had just had rear wings fitted to his Mk3 Spit and the body shop had used an adhesive to join the rear arch lip to the inner arch, which again can be tricky to weld as it can be difficult to get the two surfaces to meet for welding with out causing distortion.

Mark

[MarkB]

Sorry posted just a bit to late.

mark