Dreaded Wing (fender) bolts

Post by **ADO16** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:53 am

Hello everyone!

I'm about to dismantle my 1951 MM and was wondering if anyone might have the best possible method of breaking loose the bolts holding the wings on? My first go at it will be with penetrating oil for a few days or so followed with maybe some heat.
I remember from years back with my 57 traveller trying to unbolt them and stepping away in frustration! Any tips?
Thanks in advance!

Steve

Post by **Longdog** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:56 am

A set of Mole grips clamped onto the captive nuts in the inner wing make s them less likely to turn within their housings.On reassembly use loads of copper grease for next time.

Post by **tortron** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:05 am

any tips on the rear ones? namely the ones which are in behind that bit where the seat goes

Post by **morris62** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:37 am

best method i found so far was an air rachet with a single hex socket

Post by **jaekl** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:35 pm

Once the cage nuts start rotating, it's over. Sometimes you can clamp the sheet metal covers to hold them but usually they are tearing away from the body. Remove them and hold the square nut that"s underneath with a wrench.(spanner) However, there are three that are hard to reach. The top rear one for the front wing can be reach through the glove box opening. It's just below the edge of the shelf. To access the middle rear for the front, you need to cut a hole in the kidney panel. The bottom pair are not caged but a tapped plate. The best approach here is to force the fender off and then cut out the old plate and repair seation. Probably will be rusty anyway. To access the bottom front bolt for the rear wing, you need to cut in from the bottom.

Post by **Jefftav** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:17 am

Hi Steve, I have just had to do this recently and here are some tips I found useful.

If you are taking the wings off and don't want them i.e. they are beyond repair, then cut the wing off with a jigsaw or similar so that you can access all the bolts easily. Use plus gas or similar to soak the bolts and apply heat but remember that there might be old paint or underseal so keep an extingusher handy.

If you are keeping the wings to re-use, soak the nuts with plus gas and take out the headlight including the bowl so you can get better access onto the bolts. I was able to loosen them with a spanner then use a 13mm ratchet spanner to turn them the rest of the way out.

Allow plenty of time, I had 3 wings off in about 1 hour and the 4 one took me all day as the bolst were all just turning and were seized and unfortunately that was on the wing I wanted to keep so I had to avoid damaging the wing.

Hope this helps, Jeff

Post by **aupickup** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:45 pm

1/4 whit socket is the correct size

Post by **ADO16** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:06 pm

Hey, thanks everyone for all the suggestions! Anyway you look at it, it's going to be a very slow process for sure.

Steve

Post by **aupickup** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:07 pm

i was very lucky. all mine came out no trouble, and that was after 40 years

Post by **tortron** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:51 am

aupickup wrote:1/4 whit socket is the correct size

mine must have been swapped out at some point then

Post by **ADO16** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:09 pm

Thank you all for the response on this post....I have one more request to ask. How does one remove the two lower bolts that are at the ends of the rear wings and are part of the rear bumper attachment without tearing up the wing to remove it?

Thanks again,

Steve

Post by **tortron** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:12 am

never had a problem taking mine off
think i used two ratchets one inside and one outside