Jump to content

Another Exmo 🥱


LewisH

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 81
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Can anyone give me some advice on fitting the rear arches? From looking at other Exmo's, I hadn't fitted the wings quite right originally and need to cut out a section in order for it to fit snuggly and also to look better.

I've added a pic below of what I believe needs to be cut. As it's already been sprayed, I am reluctant to do this and quite worried about cocking it up or the paint chipping off. Is there a technique to this? I am thinking of using masking tape and a fine hacksaw blade. 

Is anyone able to confirm the area that needs to be removed. Also, as you can see, I was using this section to bolt this side of the wing to the car, but I cannot see where I will now pick up a fixing point. I am considering removing the stone guards and using these holes to mount a bracket to the inside of the wing when I refit the stone guard. Any suggestions would be very helpful. 

Thanks, Lew

Rear wing.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This one of many challenging parts of the Exmo build. It is covered on the VHS build tapes, I assume you have not viewed this otherwise you would be trembling even more about your paintwork. When I did my original build I cocked this up big time. Essentailly your red line is on the right lines, except the vertical line needs to be even further back so that you can eat into the area at the bottom front of the wing where it meets the side of the tub. You will have noticed that the body sort of bulges out a bit at the bottom so that it covers the end of the subframe (just). On the video, Tricky Dicky slowly hacks away at the fiberglass until  he gets two things right. Firstly the right angle at the top, where the short red line is on your picture should fit on to the right angle of the top edge of the tub, where your elbow would rest. Secondly ... if you try to do this, then the buldge at the tub bottom stops you moving the right angle over to attach it, so you remove a strip from the bottom edge of the fibreglass up wards in a narrowing way, the strip cut out is wide at the bottom and gets narrow as it goes up, like a long thin pointed triangle. If you get it right then when the right angle fits snugly the edge of the fibreglass along the wing edge meets the tub edge neatly with a small gap. You now realise that there is no angled bit left on the wing to attach to the side of the tub. This is where the stone guard comes into play. The original supplied guards have a rightangle bent into the edge that goes next to the tub. (it looks like this has been cut off in your picture). When the stoneguard is riveted onto the wing this edge goes right up to the tub and is bolted to the tub, this is invisible from outside the wheel arch. Now I am going to attach some photos from my build, these might show what's done on the build video, except that what you see in my case is my recent attempts to fix the mess that I made originally. What happened when I tried this was that I took too much material from the wing, This was because I had not properly secured the rear if the wing when I started removing material, the rear had moved out a bit, like on end of a see saw, so by the time I noticed and pushed it back in, the gap I had made was huge. Then not to be beaten I tried to close the gap using clamps to pull the front edge of the wing in ..... Bang! ... I cracked the top rear of the wing ... it was not able to take the twisting.    If you want I could try and extract the bit from the build video and put a digital copy on my cloud share .... since this takes a while ... I'll do it readily but only if you think you would like to take a look.

 

AA-RearWingStoneGuard001.jpg.226dc799a3b9fb370417378343d30f4a.jpgAA-RearWingStoneGuard002.jpg.41348e2aaf5bd4861f9c34bf43b6c3dc.jpgAA-RearWingStoneGuard003.thumb.jpg.0611cc2145810d26c7f0b2356b0f5f57.jpgAA-RearWingStoneGuard004.thumb.jpg.ff2c02838a3ac0b10ff22fa502265417.jpgAA-RearWingStoneGuard005.jpg.88e03c733662fdf489938a0ff6972f19.jpgAA-RearWingStoneGuard006.jpg.72c550bf44333201bd785ec6b0023d19.jpgAA-RearWingStoneGuard007.jpg.5ebf4b30d1197fe1007d008af8d78bf3.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, crapping myself about doing this. 

Can you remember what the fiberglass was like to cut? Did it splinter or crack much? Not sure whether to use hacksaw or an angle grinder. My fear is if the hacksaw blade snags it is going to potentially chip off chunks of paint. 

I've modified the picture showing what I think I need to cut-off from looking at yours, what do you think?

 

Rear wing 2.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, thats about right. I have extracted the instructions from the build video for you to see what was the "offical" way to do this. There are two clips, one short and another longer (parts 1 and 2 resp ), this is because they spanned two of the tapes that I had. The quality is poor, but turn up the sound and have a look. You will see that you do not appear to have big enough stone guards to form a lip to bolt the bottom of the wing to the tub..... so you will need to get hold of original sized ones somehow ? ...   anyway here is a link to the two clips on my cloud space. Have a look.... you might decide not to go ahead with this after you see what the designer does.

https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/n5IgsfjkFB

You notice he refers to (but does not show) a rightangled piece of steel that fits inside the wing at the join with the tub, and says to drill four holes to bolt it on etc. This is what I have done, using countersunk small ss bolts, the heads of which are then covered by the stone guard when that is fitted. So you too could do that, as your guard looks big enough to cover holes near the join with the tub. As for cutting the glass, well I just have Gel coat, no paint, and used a piece of fine hacksaw blade fitted with a handle. You can just wrap a load of masking tape around one end of a blade to get the same sort of thing. It worked well, as long as you don't try an "force" the blade to cut too much on each stroke, just be patient and work gradually with gentle pressure on the blade. I did NOT fit the dummy piping. Personally I think it looks naff, and anyway that bit about pop riveting the ends to the body looks dodgy, I guess you should pull them out after?

Edited by Sparepart
Add stuff
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you so much for going to the effort of uploading this, very interesting. Wishing I'd seen the video before embarking on the build, oh well, next time!

I'm thinking that I will put the wings back on the way I fitted previously, without cutting, get the thing through the IVA and then consider aesthetic issues such as wing trimming afterwards. 

I paid for the test today and now have a booking at the end of April. Full steam ahead!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Guys, built an Exmo in 2000, and it was great fun on completion. Registration etc complete. Got married, along came the kids and the kit was expelled to an open Barn for too many years. I am now also stripping it down and attempting to shovel off the rust. A big problem I have currently is trying to get replacements for the 2 front (and possibly back, haven't looked yet) shock absorbers. They are unfortunately in a bit of a mess, rusted and appear not to have any resistance left in them. The Emo used a ford p100 damper that attached into the donor sierra hub (as i am sure you are all aware) but I have tried the net for a lot of hours and cannot seem to find anything similar. I am resident in the Irish republic also which dosen't help with sourcing this sort of stuff. Anyone have any idea of a potential supplier in GB or can those things be pressure tested to see it they still work ??, thanks Kieran B   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kieran, I think that you might be slightly hi-jacking this thread although I am no afficianado of the protocols here. It might be better to start a seperate thread for this discussion. Have you made use of the search facilities here ? I did just now, I made a search for three words and selected the search option to have ALL words present the words were Exmo front strut. The search turned up 32 hits, and one of them seems to discuss your question in some detail.

https://www.rhocar.org/index.php?/forums/topic/27038-exmo-suspension/page/3/&tab=comments#comment-323081

Good luck,  I am part way through a similar exercise, although my front shocks are still ok, I am keen to hear how you get on in case I need replacements in future. Oh yes there is also the problem with the strut top mounts at the front breaking through the SS ... more fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...