Rear wing captive nut.

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RobThomas
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Rear wing captive nut.

Post by RobThomas »

Rear wing captive nut.

I was tightening the bolts down to clamp the beading fitted by the PO. One of the front-most ones just kept turning and it seems that there was no captive nut on the inside at all. Has anyone managed to get one in?

I was thinking of feeding some wire through and up round the B-post, sliding a nut down with some Araldite or JB, pulling the wire back down after fixing a plate to the end. Hopefully pulling the wire back will pull the jt into position and let the glue settle. Any other suggestions? Welding would be a PITA since the car is at the wrong end of the garden and there is a dead Mercedes in the way.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Ta.

Rob
Cardiff, UK
alanworland
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Re: Rear wing captive nut.

Post by alanworland »

If you take out the trim panel on the inside (end of rear seat) you might get enough access.

Alan
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RobThomas
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Re: Rear wing captive nut.

Post by RobThomas »

If only my arms were half an inch wide.... :D
Cardiff, UK
philthehill
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Re: Rear wing captive nut.

Post by philthehill »

Rob
I have just looked at the rear wing captive nuts on my Minor (which has no internal trim) and except for the one at the bottom front of the wing all are easy to get to with the trim off.
The side flap of the captive nut cage should with a bit of care be able to be bent upwards and a new nut slid into the cage and the flap bent back down.
What does happen is that the cage becomes detached from the inner wheel arch which then allows the nut to turn.
A bit of a fiddle but it can be done.
Phil

RobThomas
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Re: Rear wing captive nut.

Post by RobThomas »

and except for the one at the bottom front of the wing all are easy to get to with the trim off.

Go on, have a guess which one is missing. :(
Cardiff, UK
philthehill
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Re: Rear wing captive nut.

Post by philthehill »

Rob
Bad luck :cry:

Having had a good look at the area around the lower front nut/cage I would suggest that a possible solution would be to go in from underneath the car after making a just large enough aperture to get to the captive nut/cage.
I had to do a similar operation (but through the inner wheel arch panel) when one of the captive nuts on the front damper mounts gave way on my Ser 2.

Phil

RobThomas
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Re: Rear wing captive nut.

Post by RobThomas »

Thanks for that info, Phil. Nice idea, and one I'll go for if plan A fails. I'm going to try to feed in a plate similar to the captive nut plates used for seatbelt mounts and then drill/rivet it in place. Might work.
Bit of a bodge, but plan B might end up damaging the new paintwork so I'll keep it in reserve.
Cardiff, UK
RobThomas
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Re: Rear wing captive nut.

Post by RobThomas »

Phil. I drilled down into the threaded end of a 5/16 BSF stuffed a welding rod in, put a blob of MIG on the end, removed the sill cover plate, drilled a small hole in the base of the B-post, threaded the wire through, pulled the wire tight to drag the bolt through (backwards, if that makes sense) and then threaded a nut on it from under the wheelarch. Snipping off the wire and filing flat is a job for tomorrow. Worked out well, if a little bit of a bodge.
Cardiff, UK
philthehill
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Re: Rear wing captive nut.

Post by philthehill »

Constructive engineering in my book 8)

Well done.

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