Changing rear Wings

[Scotian]

As the title. My mates 90 has had two rear end smacks causing all the rear pannels and cross member to need to be changed. We were looking at how to go about it (all the new parts have arrived) but we are not sure what to do about the spot welds that hold the wings on.

I thought we could drill them out and use Pot rivets to fix the new wings on but is there a better way?

Also any other tips regarding replacing all the rear external pannels would be great.

[Guest diesel_jim]

You need a spot weld removing drill

[Mo Murphy]

and some pop rivets

Get a s/w cutter like the lowest one in Jims link, they're also made by Facom too so you'll find them reasonably priced.

Once the centre of the s/w is centre punched and the spring loaded centre positioned in the dot, these will cut around the s/w, through the skin and will leave a nice little plug that you can gently sand off afterwards on the panel underneath. You just need some care and remember to stop cutting once you are through the skin.

If you try to drill them with an ordinary bit, you may go right through making a bigger hole than a pop rivet can deal with.

Reason for recommendation - I've used these to drill more s/ws on vehicle reworks than you could shake a stick at over the last 20 years

Mo

[Guest WALFY]

No need for fancy tools. If you take the rear panel off and then try to "rip" the wing off it will come away slightly. Then get a big flat bladed screwdriver and then lever the wing away from the top of the seat box. The spotwelds give way very easily. Then when the wing is off you need to dress the seat box top with a file/grinder to remove the remains of the weld.

Fitting is easy. Hold/clamp the wing in place and then only need to drill the correct No of holes in the correct position to reattach.

I've done it this way twice now. Takes about 1 1/2 days to do both sides . That's with a lot of tea and biscuits and working on my own.

HTH

[Mo Murphy]

No wonder you had to do it twice, you butcher Mark

Mo

[Guest WALFY]

I wish. I used to have a thing about having a nice straight truck. In the end I just gave up and admitted to myself that trees liked my car to much and I couldn't afford to keep rebuilding the back end. Still got to straighten the Xmember and cage sometime

[Scotian]

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to pass this on to my mate and help him with it when the last couple of parts arrive. Just incase you want to see.... this is his 90 :-P

[bigblue110]

if you own a bench grinder you could shallow the tapper of a drill bit, so it doesnt cut into the mating tub lip, you would want to be using a say a 10mm drill bit possibly bigger to make sure you take all the spot. go slow and you should be able to see when outer panel finishes and inner starts. panel will come away without to much effort at all. as for putting new panel on any good panel supplier should stock a panel adhesive, i think the stuff we use is called terraset, well something like that. a bead of that and some long panel 'g'clamps and a length of wood should sort you a treat. well thats how i returned the following tum back to looking pretty dam smart and leaves no evidence, when painted of any work done (no rivets!!)

[western]

that XD is a mess

[bigblue110]

she was a reck, front axle was shagged,rear axle was shagged,fuel tank, trailing arms and prop were all shagged and in true mod style took about 8 months to get parts. not forgeting the obvious and extensive panel work needed

[western]

well bruised know what you mean about getting parts via MOD means, sometimes takes ages for aircraft parts too.

[Mo Murphy]

Yup, they are both in need of some work

Mo