getting off body panels

D4V1D · Post by **D4V1D** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 11:21 am

its harder than it looks getting the front end off a polo. theres a load of sealer to fight with. it seems to have welded some of the panels together. does anyone know how to get them seperated with out bending/breaking parts.
thanks,
dave

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 11:38 am

You talking about getting the front wings off? You can unbolt them, but you'll need to take the wheel arch liners out first. I'd jack the car up (stick it on axle stands) and remove the front wheels. Now you can get right in the arch, and you should be able to see the bolts that hold the wing on. I found melting the sealer was the easiest way to get it off so I could unbolt the wing. All the other fixings on the wings are pretty obvious I think, good luck!

D4V1D · Post by **D4V1D** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:08 pm

thanks mate

, also taking the slam panel off and i thought it would be a simple straight forward job but turns out thats spot welded down. only noticed the 2 bolts up iinside the wing after id started pulling at it. how did you melt the sealer?? i tried a hairdryer

but it doesnt get hot enough. havent got a blow torch tough. some of those bolts are plastered in the stuff

optima21 · Post by **optima21** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:15 pm

yeah the front wings are a bit of a pig to get off, you need to scrape the sealer from arround the 3 bolt heads where it bolts onto the A post. there is a bolt quite near the top and access is very tight.

you realy need an electric paintstripper or a blowtorch to heat the sealer up so it starts smoking, and then the wing can just be pulled away.

yeah the slam panel is spot welded in place, but thats probably to help the alignment of the bodyshell when they're making the car. I thought it was just bolted together as it seems that the rest of the front end panels are.

LogIK · Post by **LogIK** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:16 pm

People who I have spoken to who have done this before (Dom) used a blow torch, since you need quite a bit of heat to melt the rubbery sealant.

I think that is your best option.

Gareth_GT_Hatch · Post by **Gareth_GT_Hatch** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:30 pm

The wings bend very easily so be careful. You need to make sure that stuff is really hot so the seal brakes easily. I managed ok on my silver CL but when it came to taking a wing off a black genesis off a scrapyard it was really well held on with the stuff. We bent the wing so badly we gave up in the end

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 12:47 pm

I couldn't be arsed to get my dad's heat gun out, so just melted the sealer with a fag lighter and matches which worked well enough...

D4V1D · Post by **D4V1D** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 1:31 pm

i've also kinda bent the wing, didnt realise about the bolts up onside it at 1st, lucky its the buggered wing and not off the new car. matches it is then. wish me luck

D4V1D · Post by **D4V1D** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 2:47 pm

wahey!! wings off at last, turns out theres 3 bolts inside but i could only see 2, bloody sealer. ended up pulling it out, cant have been the strongest bolt in the world then. that was the easy one though because it was the already broken wing, real task is gonna be getting the straight one off. does any one know how to un-do spot welds? tried heating them up but no luck, maybe i should just heat em for longer?

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 3:01 pm

Do you not normally drill out spot welds?

optima21 · Post by **optima21** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 3:02 pm

there are 3 ways to remove spotwelds.

1) you cant grind through one of the two panels that are joined together so that there is no metal left.

2) you can get spotweld drills, which are special drill bits that have flat cutting edges and have a central point. you drill in the centre of the weld and just enough so that you put a hole in one of the two welded panels.

3) use a hammer and chisel to speperate the panels, but this will make a mess of them

you cant seperate spotwelded panels just heating them.

the other thing is that you will have to weld the replacement panel back in place.

D4V1D · Post by **D4V1D** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 3:17 pm

hmmm, arse. ill have to try an see if i got a spot weld drill piece then, not really a problem for the old bits but obviosly i need the new bits to stay, er, new. i have to have them re-welded as well though?? arse, again. not sure i can afford to have then done, couldnt just, i dunno, use contact adhesive or something similar?

well, thanks for the help, better get back to it i suposse.

nick euro · Post by **nick euro** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 7:26 pm

i've had a riight problem of a time getting the front end off my mk3 for work to be done. the wings if you have the plastic sideskirts along with arches need to beremoved first. then like they say. remove the bolts on the inside of the engine bay for the wings. then take the wheel off and the plastic inner trim then remove the 3 bolts right up inside near the door. the wings then come off.
with the slam panel after you have removed the bolts you need to get one hell of a strong drill to get rid of the majority of the spot welds as i used a portable electric drill which didn't work. but lucky me my dad has a garage so i used the air drill. then chip the rest off and the slam panel should then come out but you need to take the wings off first.
make sure the radiator doesn't fall out obviously as that is connected to the slam panel via bolts.

SpikeyG40 · Post by **SpikeyG40** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 8:05 pm

had to replace my wing when i got the car, had it painted b4 we put in on (had to be very careful!). the wing wasn't too bad to get off, alot of waxxy stuff under there!
although in saying that, my old polo needed the wing replaced and we found a mint condition wing in the breakers, that was a real b***h to get off! we had to dig out the bolts because of the amount of underseal and wax! good wing mind!

D4V1D · Post by **D4V1D** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 10:39 pm

well thats good, my cars looking exactly like yours at the mo, lol, so i must be going alright. that undersealer stuff is a right slag, cheers for the blow torch tip. got one more bolt to un-do and that should be wings sorted, then its on to the spot welds on that barsteward of a slam panel, i got quite a powerfull drill out in the garage, plugs in to mains an stuff so im hoping itll be up to the job, lol. all will be revield tomorrow i guess.