How are the three hinges for the spare wheel cover attached to the car body? I can see the six slotted screw heads, none of which will move and are chewing up with the screwdriver. I can’t tell what’s behind them - washers and nuts? Captive nuts? Threaded strip? Probably best to know before I take a drill to them, as I can’t feel a way of getting to the back of them.
How is the fuel filler flap retained to the body? I can feel a box structure around it where the hose connects, but can’t immediately see a way to remove the rectangular flap.
Can’t vouch for how it was originally but mine has plates with tapped holes welded in the back of the return behind the boot floor rear edge. Whether these would have been in cages originally so as to provide a little adjustment I don’t know but they are now fixed. The screws have countersunk heads.
The filler flap itself has four welded studs and secured to the hinge with nuts and washers. The hinge assembly with its spring fits to the forward edge of the box with two set screws. These may have been cheesehead originally but they’re panhead now. I posted a couple of pictures of this assembly recently but here they are again for convenience.
Thanks chaps, I’ll try and carefully drill out the c/sunk screws for the spare wheel cover hinges and possibly helicoil if necessary, but they’re hardly critical load bearing.
Thanks for the fuel flap pic - somewhere in the rust there must be a couple of slotted c/sunk screws then!
Hi Roger. For frozen screws this type of tool works wonderfully. If you clean up the slot in the screw and choose a tight fitting bit you can often remove them with very little damage.
Agreed. As with all things overexuberance can be detrimental. When using one to remove the large rusted in bonnet screws on my e type I found that support on the opposite side with an appropriate sized socket and heavy hammer helped a lot providing there was room.
GeoffGeoff Allam
September 11
Agreed. As with all things overexuberance can be detrimental. When using one to remove the large rusted in bonnet screws on my e type I found that support on the opposite side with an appropriate sized socket and heavy hammer helped a lot providing there was room.
Sorry Geoff, I was responding on a phone and the message clearly didn’t go fully.
I have a selection of different sized impact screwdrivers, the best being an old Snapon I’ve had for over 30 years. I have modified several of the bits for various jobs, but if these don’t move easily I’ll drill out carefully and either use stud extractors or helicoils if necessary (and access allows). Unfortunately there’s no rear access to these areas if petrol tank is in place in a DHC. The key to successful impact driving isn’t so much the force of the blow you can swing, more the angle of access you can get. Unless you are fully square on the offending screw the head will chew up.
Yes. With most jobs the biggest problem is access and determining how stuff was put together. On my modern vehicles I find the what causes me the most frustration is unclipping electrical connections when there is poor visibility. They all seem to clip with different mechanisms and manuals invariable just advise “ undo such and such a connection”.
I hate working on ‘modern’ cars - although the most modern in my fun collection is a 2001 BMW M Coupe, not exactly the latest model (although 325bhp in a Z3 chassis is fun…). Every time I do anything on it, the little plastic clips holding parts on break - and there are a million different sizes, designs etc.
Filler cap removed successfully and dismantled. I’ve attached a photo of the flap and the tool used for removal, which usually works and allows for precise positioning with decent leverage. Note the screws for the hinge (which are the originals, still have Carmen Red on them) are 2BA slotted cheesehead with an internal toothed washer.
