Rear wing replacement

[Shaun_E]

My new rear wings have been delayed so, in desperation to get my car back on the road, I am contemplating fitting my old wings. My new side skins have no holes drilled so I will have to drill holes to match my old wings. I am OK with all this and have the relevant measurements and positioning details to be fairly confident with getting them in the right place

Now, when I come to fit the new wings, they will be undrilled so has anybody had experience of fitting new, undrilled wings to a body with existing holes? Is it easy enough to use the old wings as a template to drill the new wings? How sensitive is the "look" of the wings to hole positioning?

Should I just wait for the new wings or fit the old ones temporarily?

Thoughts please.

Shaun

 

Yellow SL #32

[Myles]

Well, yes - I've fitted (actually V7 did almost all the work) a set of DITP carbon wings to existing holes. We didn't use the old wings as templates - partly because the DITP wings are subtly different.

 

There are some pics of us fitting them in the products section on my site - although not a very-detailed how-to write-up.

 

ISTR we started at the back - this is the most critical point that can be picked up visually if you mess it up - chalked up the likely location for the hole and then drilled it.

 

I *think* we then went to the front and did that - taking note of the original wing position, but spending more time getting it to sit evenly around the wheel and having a good contour. Then it was 'just' a case of filling in the holes in between.

 

The really tricky bit is to get the lights level and correctly spaced - mess *this* up and you'll regret it until you sell the car or change the wings again...

 

Project Scope-Creep is underway...

 

Alcester Racing 7's Equipe - 🙆🏻™

 

Alcester-Racing-Sevens.com

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[Ferrino]

The really tricky bit is to get the lights level and correctly spaced - mess *this* up and you'll regret it until you sell the car or change the wings again...

Bu66er! Got any tips for this?

 

Got the guitar, got the keyboard - now got the engine 😬

[Myles]

Well, yes - but it's not rocket-science.

 

We had a long, thin, straight pole/rod/whatever that we could rest on top of both light clusters - this helps the alignment and allows you to use a spirit-level if you wish.

 

The basic method was to fit one lamp and then measure up for the other. You can't rely on measuring the height from the lower edges of the wing etc. - just remember you've got a handmade car - it's really got to be done by eye.

 

Having two people helps - one can hold the first lamp in place, and the other can take a *long* walk back and view from a distance - you can then mark it up with chalk and drill for the first one.

 

Make one of the screw-holes a slight slot to allow a teeny bit of adjustment.

 

Once the first is in place, use the rod, spirit-level and any reference points that come to hand (e.g. the number plate) to get the second light lined up - the tools will give you a guide, but the idea is to make it look right rather than conform to some sort of symmetrical measurements - take that long walk again and view from a few angles whilst your patient and willing helper holds the light in place.

 

The most common mistakes seem to be to mount the lamps too high (so they point upwards) and to give them a kind of eyebrow treatment - i.e. they slope in towards the center of the car. The latter problem is usually caused by trying to judge the level from too close to the car.

 

It really is more of an art than science and I'm not looking forward to doing it again when I replace my broken carbon rear wing...

 

Project Scope-Creep is underway...

 

Alcester Racing 7's Equipe - 🙆🏻™

 

Alcester-Racing-Sevens.com

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[Shaun_E]

Thanks Myles - some good pointers there. If my wings don't arrive soon, I'll put the old ones on temporarily.

 

Yellow SL #32

[Trevor Newman]

Someone on another thread suggested bolting the 2 wings to each other to get them the same 😬 seemed like a good plan to me!

[DaveMorris]

I REALLY do wish that I'd not read this thread. ☹️

 

Having just fitted rear lights to a pair of new wings - whilst off the car - I'm now wondering what they'll look like when I get round to fitting the new wings

 

I suppose that as long as I'm sitting in the drivers seat it won't matter too much 😬

 

Quick question (sorry - not intended hi-jack) - one of my wings came drilled, the other undrilled - is this normal ?

[SLR No.77]

Fixing the wings to the body - definately an advantage if you drill oversize holes and use sizeable washers under the bolt heads!

 

Fitting the lights: Alternative method (when you've gone to the trouble of getting the bottom rear edges of each wing in the same position)is to use a piece of card and make a position template from your first light postion, then turn the card over to transfer the position to the other wing Additionally, initially fix the both lights using only one screw in each block, they can then be "rotated" to ensure they're oriented correctly.

 

Stu.