urgent wing problems

[ben rawlings]

im just in the process of removing my front wings on my ledbury for undersealing. ive taken all bolts out instructed by the haynes manual and it is coming free but is still cought up somewhere at the top of the wing by the bulkhead. i cant get to see up behind there because the plastic arch liner is in the way and is held on by thoose crappy plastic screws rover use. ive buggered the heads on these and the wing needs to come off, be undersealed and put back on before dark...........

any sugestions people???????

[SimonR]

Hi Ben,

Yeah, you have to remove the liners as there's a bolt behind.

Open the bonnet and take a look on the tops of the inner arches inside. You'll see the backs of those plastic clips. Using a mallet and small screwdriver, gently punch the clips through onto the floor. You'll see that the central peg is what's holding it in place. Then at the fronts of the wheel liners, at the bottom, working from the side of the car, under the arch, remove the plastic plug things by prising them or simply pulling the liner behind them.

Remove the liner by undoing those plastic bits, bending back any metal retainers and removing any bolts that the Ledders may or may not have. You can then get hold of the top part of the liner (where it goes up in to the suspension turret) and yank it into the centre of the car.

Then you can get to the bolt!

You'll have to remove the bumper, of course, but then you've done that already, right?!

Good luck.

[ben rawlings]

yep removed the bumper. its had a fresh coat of paint in the workshop......

right im gunna crack on.....

be back later to report on progress

cheers

[ben rawlings]

right, ive got the wing off, infact ive got both the wings off, the front valance and the panel behind the bummer.

no waxoiling/undersealing as of yet but will be doing it soon. the ever approaching darkness outside naffed me up abit but there you go....

bit concered, i jacked the car up to remove the two front wheels for easier acess and the drivers side front door decided that it wouldnt close as easily as it normaly does....however when all front panels were removed and the front wheels were back on the drivers door closed like normal....slightly weired i thought.

have any of you had this sort of thing happen before???????

[MaestroSpecial]

have any of you had this sort of thing happen before???????

Yes, the body flexes when jacked up at one end. Bends in the middle.

[ben rawlings]

is that a sign off dodgy build quality or does this happen on all maestro/montegos or other cars?????

[Maria]

It'll happen to any single-piece body like the Maestro shell - all bodyshells have some inherent flex to them.

[E_T_V]

Yes it happens on pretty much all older cars and montys and maestros too ;)

More modern ones are slightly better but not much.

[ben rawlings]

cheers, thats put my mind at rest..

[Slaphead]

bit concered, i jacked the car up to remove the two front wheels for easier acess and the drivers side front door decided that it wouldnt close as easily as it normaly does....however when all front panels were removed and the front wheels were back on the drivers door closed like normal....slightly weired i thought.

have any of you had this sort of thing happen before???????[/QUOTE]


I seem to remember my old A60 doing the same thing. The time to worry is when the door doesn't shut properly,when you've let the jack down! :banghead:

[ben rawlings]

just bringing this thread back to life.....

putting the passengers side wing back on i found that it didnt fit as well as it did before.is it just a case of farting around for ages or is there a propper way of doing it?

any tips on re fitting pannels would be appreciated.

[SimonR]

putting the passengers side wing back on i found that it didnt fit as well as it did before.

Hi Ben,

I took the front of JOE apart recently to waxoyl it to sort out a little rust on the front wings and I had the same problem as you're experiencing.

JOE isn't quite perfect yet, but the way I did it was to bolt the panels loosly in place, put some waxoyl behind the panel where each bolt passes through, to aid slipping, and then gently massage the panels into place before bolting them down.

Be careful of the bonnet shut lines when you reassemble it all, lower the bonnet gently to make sure it'll close properly and not damage the edges of the wings. You'll know it's right when all te panel gaps return to normal.

As I say, JOE isn't perfect, you can see in my photos in the garage, but it's close!

One last thing: be careful of the back edges of the front wings, if you get them too close to the doors they'll touch when the doors open.

[ben rawlings]

cheers...the waxoil under the joints is a good tip. il have a bash at it tomorow when i get a minute.

im trying to get the ledbury up together as quickly as possible so i can put the vp in the garage.

[ChrisM]

One last thing: be careful of the back edges of the front wings, if you get them too close to the doors they'll touch when the doors open.
*cough* like the ones on A335 still do ;) I've not had time to rehang the wing yet, either... :o