V70 Body/Trim: Front wing removal

[100K+]

My 2004 V70 is suffering from blebing paint on the very outer lip of the front wing, over an area of about a square centimetre. The paint has not been chipped, and I'm assuming rust is therefore come through from behind. As I'm in lockdown, I was wondering about taking the wing off and attacking the problem at the work bench - make it easier to see what I was doing and doing the actual repair work.
So... how easy is it to remove and refit the front wing ??
It seems simple a few rivets and a series of bolts, but are there any hidden difficulties, and is this actually the way to go??

Comments welcome..

Cheers
Bob

[oragex]

It is a little tricky to access a lower bolt, and there's also 1-2 bolts attached to thin metal brackets that will likely twist when turned and cause the paint to break on these brackets. Here's a video, the lower bolt I'm saying we need to cut a hole in the plastic trim - someone says you can reach the bolt with a wrench from inside the fender (once tossed a little). And there's also those rivets for the plastic liner https://youtu.be/gaJFnRGVFA0

[100K+]

So watched the video from oragex ( thank you) and also discovered this video :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLaE3m0Y2Rw

Started this pm. The rivets for me came out easy, simply drilled them out, removed plastic nuts and the splash guard was simple to remove, I edged the bumper forward a tad as if I was removing the headlight unit and the task of removing the bolts holding the front edge of the wing was alot simpler.
The bolt at the base of the windscreen hidden behind a rubber trim came out easy as did the bolt visible when the door is open.
Where I came unstuck ( big time ) was the bolt at the foot of the wing, behind the plastic trim for the sill. Access was very bad, and in order to get better access I tried to remove this plastic cover panel. It appeared the lower edge of this panel is held in by similar clips that hold the top edge of the front bumper slam panel IE a centre pin which you push down and the surrounding circle can be with withdrawn.....errr no. Need to investigate this as I now have 3 clips with no central pin, as they are pushed through. but the clip won't come out. The top edge of this trim is held to the sill by "diamond" clips, which push through holes. All 3 of mine snapped.
As I tried to take the wing foot bolt out it snapped, and although the wing was now free it took me some time to remove the bolt stub from the captive nut. Used lots of heat and molegrips.
The actual wing is pretty cruddy on the back, the lip all the way around has flaky/ bubbly/ paint/ rust. As its not visible I have ground the rust away, rust treated it with kurust and then given the whole area a good coat of hammerite.
This work would have been much much harder if the wing had remained on the car.
I don't know whether I'll re-attach the wing to the car before doing the outer surface or not. Had enough for today....


Cheers
Bob

[oragex]

Got me scared a little. I would like to replace my right one too (dent)

[100K+]

Originally Posted by oragex

Got me scared a little. I would like to replace my right one too (dent)

Its one of those jobs that once you have done it you will be able to do in 20minutes IF all the bits come adrift as they should. All the wing fastening bolts bar the one at the wing foot came out easy. Heat, penetrating oil and molegrips got the stub out. I ran a 6mm x1.0 tap through all the captive nuts before reassembly.
The undersill plastic clips I discovered the central pin needs to be PULLED OUT from the clip not pushed in. I drilled a small 1.5mm hole in the pin only 2/3mm deep and used a dentist pic to pull the pins out on the 2 that were still in. (what ever you use to clean the inside of torx or allen bolts will do to)

The utube videos give a good guide to where the bolts are 4@ the A post; 3 on the wing top, and 3 by the light + I think 4 front and back rivets.

Cheers
Bob

My worst bit of this job is my painting. Despite lots of care the colour is not a match, so although I don't have a rusty wing there is a section of the wing which is a different shade to the rest of the car.

Time will see how it lasts.

Cheers
Bob