Boot lid catching

[Paul H]

The boot lid on my Vitesse catches the body and now worn through the paint . My plan was to push out the wings which has worked  . The distance between the wing tips according to the WSM is 4ft and after my spreading it’s 4ft and 1/8th . Then I peened down the high spots and there is now a defined gap for the boot lid and no more catching . This is the spreader tool  I made from scrap wood and a M10 turnbuckle with the ends cut off. 

The spreader could be modified to hold doors in place and there is approx 2 ins of adjustment with the turnbuckle 

After spreading the wings and some groaning I used a nut to flatten the high spots . All in all job done for a few pence .

Leaving the spreader tool in place under pressure over night did help 

Paul 

 

[SpitFire6]

Nice one.

[watsona6]

Clever!

[Pete Lewis]

This is another way to  reverse the effects of  tub spread , we duscsussed the timber and studding way to pull in tub srread but the door seals cured the door fit , the  getting wide at the B post  and narrowing at the boot apperture is all part of the same 

 Spread Body distortion they can all suffer with over time 

Good to ses the push out rather than a pull in has worked , another one for the out the box solutions. 

Pete

[Paul H]

33 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

This is another way to  reverse the effects of  tub spread , we duscsussed the timber and studding way to pull in tub srread but the door seals cured the door fit , the  getting wide at the B post  and narrowing at the boot apperture is all part of the same 

 Spread Body distortion they can all suffer with over time 

Good to ses the push out rather than a pull in has worked , another one for the out the box solutions. 

Pete

The passenger door was making a noise when applying max pressure so this must have been the B post flexing . At max the wings were pushed out by about 1ins . My concern was I only wanted the drivers side  gap widening so didn’t risk any further pressure .

Paul 

[Pete Lewis]

yes whether youre pulling in the B or pushing out the boot the noises are quite alarming creaks and groans 

but strong tea and perseverance  works ....a cheap fix  into the bargain

how about i hire out the puller  and you can hire out the  pusher 

so between us the cars will be ...straight   Ha !!   no more tight boot lids or gull wing doors 

pete

 

[daverclasper]

Good one Paul, will maybe use that technique as my boot is catching on one side (though doors are not Gull wing, who knows what folk have done to make thing fit in past 30 years?, so maybe this will mess up my door fit? ).

In the last Courier, in the "Bond" section, the guy had used the "push out" from top of B posts. He had angle ground a slit (1mm disc I assume?) at inside, bottom of B posts, each side to give less stress/creak I assume, then welded up the gaps after.

Guess this could be done on just one side, if you only want to only move out one side, as this will be more prone to move?.

Dave

Edited September 21, 2019 by daverclasper

[SpitFire6]

Hi,

 Not the best place for a fire extinguisher?

Cheers,

Iain.