Turret pockets - rear wheel arches

I removed all the loose rust and the old adhesive today. This is all that's left - two sides of the section. The rest came away easily - there was no structural strength there at all. I'm just wondering how to get those bolts out. They're all soaked in WD40 and hoping that'll help.

What adhesive should be used when fitting the replacements ?

It looks like the link between the tower and the roll bar is still intact.

As for bonding the new one in... I'd personally use a large quantity of a polyurethane adhesive and leave it a couple of days to go off fully. I have several cartridges if you don't fancy paying retail for it.

Others might suggest epoxy resin, but speaking for myself, I'd prefer something with a bit of give.

Cheers Martin. I was quite pleased to see the turret/roll bar bit still in place. The metal is still about 1mm thick as well. At least I've not been driving around with the chance of the turret collapsing .

The old adhesive was definitely flexible so I'll take your advice on the polyurethane adhesive. How much does it cost?

Having cleaned it all up and seeing exactly what's connected to what, my question about the strut brace is answered - I'm sure that's a NO.

A brace would not maintain the link between the roll bar and turret (I should have realised that from previous posts anyway ). Also, it would not prevent the cracking of the fibreglass around the area that's occurred because the body is bonded to this section.

I'm just wondering how to get those bolts out. They're all soaked in WD40 and hoping that'll help.

Hi scottydog
As no one else has offered any suggestions, may I submit my ideas. I would knock off as much rust as possible with, say an old screwdriver, your WD40 will have helped here. I think you may be surprised how much rust will come off, for so little metal loss. Clearly the threads of the bolts on the right of your pic, will be very pitted, so I would attack the threads with a junior hacksaw (if you can get one in) and cut the threads off as close to the captive nuts as possible. The threads inside the nut, not having been in the atmosphire should not be in too bad a condition. Clearing the rust off the head of the bolt should get it to a state where a spanner will grip. With regard to the other bolts, as I believe the exposed thread should not be in to bad condition, as they appear to be not exposed to the outside world, so having cleared the rust from the heads, they might just come out. Worth a try
John

ScottyDog,
It doesn't look as if the WD40 is going to be much use, unless you can get it to soak on the roll bar side, but it is worth a try. the bolts holding the turret should not be difficult to remove, you should be able to cut through them with a slitting wheel.
The roll bar bolts are a different kettle of fish!! I haven't even started looking at changing mine yet, but I am hoping that if you get a good hex impact socket, even if you have to hammer it on is going to be the best bet. A bi-hex socket will just round the corners off.
If you can break the joint on the bolt and manage to move it at all, then I would soak more WD40 in there and it should then be OK.
Failing that there is no easy option, other than to be very patient and use a Dremal with a burr to gradually ease out each of them.

You have my full moral support on this one!! Please let me know if you have any success

Cheers,

Jeff

Hi Jeff - I'm not sure it'll do much good either but I figured I'll be patient and not worry about removing the old metal until I've had the new brackets made up. In the interim I can do as much as possible to make life easy. Worst it'll cost is a bit of my time and a can of WD40.

I read about using putty to create a "well" around bolts on vertical surfaces and filling that with penetrating oil. I might just give that a try, Penetrating oils seem to work best when the rusty object can be soaked in them, so a well of oil should allow it to soak.

I'm not so fussed about the bolts from the turret (nut splitter/grinder/hacksaw or something will deal with these) but the roll bar ones worry me. I have visions of turning them and having them snap and getting the remaining threaded part out could be a headache. One good thing, I took one of those plastic vents by the roll bar out. There's lots of rust proofing inside there so the threads might have been protected and might not be so bad.

I've not heard of a slitting wheel before - I'll have a look at one. Thanks for the tip and support

http://www.rtoc.org/boards/picture.php? ... tureid=642

This area had had a plate welded from the outside to fool the MOT man, but it wasn't doing much good as can pretty well be seen. This car was quite drivable and had no issues with it's turret boxes. This photo shows pretty well how narrow the "footprint" of the tower is where it meets the subframe, and would be under enormous strain if the tower were not supported at the top.

(this area was repaired properly with an engine-out)

Scotty Dog

As you have removed the plastic 'vent' to the rear of the side window, you will see that the offending roll bar bolts protrude a little way beyond the captive nuts at the bottom of the bar (hopefully - they did with mine). The threads should be pretty clean but you should also be able to spray some penetrating fluid onto them so you are tackling the bolt from both ends as it were. I agree with previous comments that your efforts with WD40 or similar on fast-rusted bolt heads are likely to be nugatory, but there is a solution. You will need a dremel, ideally with a flexible extension shaft, and a metal burr bit (ideally several), oh, and a fair amount of patience! Having faced this sort of situation before, I would set about grinding away the remaining metal face through which the roll bar bolts are fitted. If you grind around the bolt heads (allow a little clearance so that you don't chew the heads) you need to work through to the roll bar and then grind down the corner between the two remaining faces. What is left of the smaller face will then just fall away. You will probably find that the now visible face of the roll bar has little, if any rust on it and you will then be able to direct your penetrating fluid to the join between bolt and roll bar. With very careful further grinding you should be able to clean back the bolt head (try to shape the metal left between bolt head and roll bar to match the faces of the bolt head) to get a socket on to. I have ground a bolt in similar circumstances back to a slightly smaller hex to take a 12mm socket rather than the 13mm it should take. Tap the bolt before you try to move with a socket, then just try to turn it a fraction clockwise first before trying to loosen it. Once I had cleared all the rust away from mine, the bolts themselves were not actually that tight.

For what it's worth, I have used stainless bolts, washers and spring washers to refit, but with plenty of copaslip. I did have to clean one of the threads (with a tap), which seemed to have got crossed somehow, but the other 3 were fine.

I used Sikaflex (a polyurethane sealant/adhesive as suggested by Martin - Sikaflex is a tad more expensive than some but I just find it better than most - Partco usually stock it) to bond the turret top in place and then back-filled the gaps once secured with the bolts.

For those of you not using stainless replacements, the best protective coating I have come across is Epoxymastic 1-2-1. Nothing else comes close and no solvent will remove it (well none you or I are likely to encounter!). You can paint any metal, corroded or not, and it's brilliant on the fibreglass inner wing areas. Have a look at www.rust.co.uk, and just for the record, I have nothing to do with the company! I just wish I had discovered this stuff years ago.

Anyway 'Scotty Dog', good luck with your efforts, I'm sure the bolts will come out eventually - just don't forget the goggles!

Paul T

I used Sikaflex (a polyurethane sealant/adhesive as suggested by Martin) - Sikaflex is a tad more expensive than some but I just find it better than most -

FWIW Wurth's Bond&Seal -is- Sikaflex under a different name. Wurth owns the Sikaflex brand (apparently).

I removed the old section this afternoon. It wasn't anywhere near as bad a job as I expected Probably because there was even less good metal left than it looks like in the 'photo. The roll bar wasn't actually connected to the turret - there was just rust I hadn't removed last time.

It took about 5hrs in total. I cut through the nuts on the turret connecting bolts with an angle grinder and the bolts simply fell out. Easy.

The tip about the Dremel was spot-on ! I cut around the two roll bar bolts and managed to break what metal was left with mole grips. That left a gap between the bolt head and roll bar that allowed me to spray in plenty of WD40. The bolts needed working in and out a few times but came out without breaking

Thanks everyone for your help - nearly job done now. I should have the replacement part within a couple of weeks and am looking forward to fitting it and getting the car back on the road.

It's taken slightly longer to get the parts made up than expected and I had to create a template from Jeffs plans.




No laughing at my attempts at welding - thankfully you can't see the worst

The welder is still a new toy and this is the first time I've tried getting into internal angles

But, it's done the job and the template fits. The proper new pieces are to be made from 4mm stainless. Ready by the weekend.

I am REALLY looking forward to getting the car back on the road.

ScottyDog..... there is hope for you yet as a Blue Peter presenter! Very nice artwork, and it looks like a great plan about to come off. See you on the road soon !

ScottyDog..... there is hope for you yet as a Blue Peter presenter!

I'll only take the job if they bring back the very lovely Konnie Huq

All credit to Jeff for the plans - it would have been a much harder job without them.

I collected the turret sections yesterday



And fitted the nearside one today




The offside looks OK but needs a close check to be sure,

A few days for the adhesive to cure and I'll be back on the road

BTW... the guy who made these up for me is happy to do more if anyone else needs a set.