Rear upright fixings on rear wing

[PaulColeman]

My car has had the rear upright fixing on the rear wing butchered by the previous owner. Instead of having two holes with a tapped hole in the plate underneath I have 4 big holes. I am trying to decide how to fix this little gem I've been left. There is a tapped plate underneath the wing which is held in place by a cage which has been spot welded to the panel...


Has anybody ever managed to repair this area?

I also have a similar problem with the ones in the roof and one of them has a plastic rawl plug stuck in the hole. So I have to do something with this too.

[abowie]

Does the chrome support for the rear window locate properly in one of those holes?

If it does you could leave the mess for posterity.

Otherwise I'd be trying to cut off the threaded plate and making one that fits, then gluing it back in place, which should save your paint.

[PaulColeman]

Does the chrome support for the rear window locate properly in one of those holes?

If it does you could leave the mess for posterity.

Otherwise I'd be trying to cut off the threaded plate and making one that fits, then gluing it back in place, which should save your paint.

It's not clear but I should have said the body is in primer and hasn't been painted yet.

[paulsco]

Hi Paul,

A couple of pictures for you:

This is the underside of the area.



You will see that there is a reinforcing plate and a cage for the captive threaded plate. not sure, but I think
10 -32 UNF (3/16") threads.
I am assuming that none of the holes in your plate are threaded, but from your picture I would think the originals are the one at the back and the second one back from the door edge, but your quarter light chrome should confirm.



I think that it would be very difficult to remove this cage because of access; it might be easier to cut out the section from the top, do the repair and butt weld it back on. Alternatively, if the threads have been drilled out, you could Helicoil new threads and weld up the spare holes.

Paul

[PaulColeman]

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't thought about Helicoils as I didn't think they would do them that small but they do so good idea! Trying to get them out from the back looks like a bit of a nightmare so I'll try the Helicoil idea first before I go to the extreme of cutting them out.

Cheers, Paul.

[abowie]

It's not clear but I should have said the body is in primer and hasn't been painted yet.

Then now's the time to go in from the top and fix it properly. Open the panel up, replace the plate with a new one and then weld the panel back and repair. This is probably the ideal solution as that plate is supposed to slide to make adjustment possible.

If you don't want to do that you could probably just plug weld the holes and then re drill and tap the holes. Note that weld material is often pretty hard to drill though.

They do make helicoils that size but the captive plate is pretty thin and there might not be enough depth for one to grab properly. I would actually try to use a Nutsert if the plate is thin enough material.

I had a devil of a time with my current 3.8 in this area getting the alignment right. I ended up having to shim the chromed post top and bottom and oval the holes significantly.

[PaulColeman]

Then now's the time to go in from the top and fix it properly. Open the panel up, replace the plate with a new one and then weld the panel back and repair. This is probably the ideal solution as that plate is supposed to slide to make adjustment possible.

It looks like quite a tricky panel to cut out. I've got a 4" angle grinder but I'm going to need something a little more delicate than that. Has anybody got any good ideas? Drilling a series of holes would be a bit messy...

[paulsco]

Do you have an air compressor?

Air tools are your friend; die grinders, cut off tools, Roloc discs etc.


https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/3028103163?iid ... gL5I_D_BwE

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Paul

[tinworm]

Andrew , Jaguar shimmed the pillars top and bottom anyway - as required of course -and provided a chrome shim for the bottom and a zinc plated one for the top. I have had to cut a neat rectangle of steel out of the top several times before (different cars) - as you describe - to repair the captive plate.
Paul - you require a slim slitting disc - they are around 1.5-2mm thick - it does not matter if you cut through the upstanding flange around the window you can easily weld it up. Watch out for lead..

Barrie

[PaulColeman]

Thanks for the replies.

Yes I do have a compressor (a 150L one) that should run a tool like that so I'll have a look at them, thanks.

[abowie]

Dremel.

[steve3.8]

I would leave the outer panel intact . Working from the inside you are not losing critical dimensions or cutting good bodywork .You can slide the tapped plate out and replace it by grinding the cage end off , I would use a 3mm shank carbide burr in a suitable tool. A bead of tiger seal positioned 15 mm away from the cage end is all that’s needed to stop the plate coming out .