How to remove wings

[endorfin]

I need a bit of welding done of the sills for the mot and need to remove the wings in order to get it done properly.

It seems simple enough by looking at it, unbolt the bolts on the nose, drop forward and unbolt the wings but can't see any other bolts apart from the row on the top, anyone done this before?

Wings don't seem to be mentioned in the Paynes manual.

Its a S2

[Dean]

apart from the ones you mention there are two 10mm bolts you can get at with the front doors open and one 10mm bolt behind the wheel arch liners in the back of the arches, there is also a small metal clip to prize off where the wing laps over the sill but depending on the severity of the rust that may not be there.

D

[MTXM]

I concur with Dean, except I think there is another 10mm bolt behind the sidelight, which needs to be removed by depressing a plastic clip from inside! With regards, Matthew T.

[endorfin]

That's all I needed to know, thanks. Strangely there doesn't seem to be anything on the wings in the Haynes manual, not in the index or anywhere else, maybe I'm not looking properly.

Matthew, yeah I recall that bolt you mention when I was messing with the headlamp washers, you need to remove that bolt anyway when dropping the nose.

The welding that needs doing looks a pig of a job, took the car in to a tyre place to have 2 front tyres put on, they jacked the car up at the front jacking points with 2 trolley jacks 1 at a time and the sills buckled under the weight. OK maybe the sills were slightly rusty but I still think it's an idiotic thing to do to use a trolly jack to jack up such a heavy car there. It didn't help that the suspension sinks down when you jack it up. Even after seeing the 1st sill buckle under the weight he still proceeded to do the other one and that buckled too. I had left the car with them while I did some shopping after warning him about the suspension dropping and he said he'd put it on the lift.

He's agreed to pay £50 towards the cost of welding so it's something I suppose.

[Dean]

Its a pita to be honest, the jacking points should never be used, they are just really badly designed always jack from the subframes, trouble is a jacking point should be just that so its not really their fault, even if they were dim enough to do it twice.

D

[minijet]

took the car in to a tyre place to have 2 front tyres put on, they jacked the car up at the front jacking points with 2 trolley jacks 1 at a time and the sills buckled under the weight..

A tyre bay idiot did the same with one of my cars. Trolley jacks pull the car as they lift, if both sides are raised together something has to give, and inevitably it will be one or both of the useless jacking points.
I asked at the local garage if it would be possible to weld some bracing pieces on to support the jacking points. The mechanic said I'd need to remove the carpets and sound proofing first as they'd catch fire due to the heat.

Paul

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[endorfin]

Took it for MOT today, failed on just the jacking points "offside front (floor) subframe prescribed area is excessively corroded" and the same for the nearside. No advisorys at all. It would have passed if it wasn't for those tyre bay monkeys!

They didn't even jack it up at the correct point either but further in, part of the floor in the driver's footwell is all raised up! Garage says it can be pushed back down.

Welding quoted at £120, I'm going to remove the wings & the carpets & soundproofing tomorrow ready for when it goes back in on Friday. Hope removing the carpets isn't too difficult!

When I said I was going to remove the wings in order for welding to be done, he said it's not necessary 'I'll just weld them on, its not a collector's car' cheek!

[Dean]

Depending on how you feel i would have the wings off, if they weld them on they wont be able to treat behind the lip at the bottom of the wing and rust will start straight away between the wing bottom and sill, would take a couple of years to come through mind but if your thinking of keeping her long term...............................

D

[endorfin]

Yeah that's what I was thinking, the amount of money I've spent on her in the last few weeks I want to get at least a couple of years out of her.

Is there anything I can ask them to do to treat the sill while they're welding it to slow down the corrosion a bit, I remember reading on one of these forums somewhere about someone spraying some oil inside the sills or something?

[Dean]

from the sounds of it your outriggers are rusted if its behind the front jacking points, if you have access to a compressor and can spare a fiver for a schutz gun then either spray oil into the cills and other box sections or just get yourself a bottle of box oil and there will be enough to treat every box section on the car including the subframes, depends how far you want to go really.

D