V70: Body Slam panel/headlight frame removal.

[Tony Rama]

Help. Advice needed. Bent the slam panel/headlamp support frame. I've got a second hand one, and I'm looking for advise on what's involved with getting the old one out.

Are the rads attached to it? What else needs to be disconnected? Looked around the internet, but can't find anything past getting the bumper off.

A bit stuck here, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Tony

[Georgeandkira]

After finding no "slam panel" references in my Haynes manual, I looked up "radiator removal" and there were two bolts high on the radiator going into the slam panel. Other bolts went into other hardware. I guess you must check the slam panel's holes.

How'd you bend it?

[Tony Rama]

Thanks. Thats a good start. So I may be able to leave the rads in place and just disconnect them from the structure.

[Georgeandkira]

Bring your small inspection mirror and LED torch.
Remember, bending back opposite the way it was damaged is fair play.

[Tony Rama]

Originally Posted by Georgeandkira

Bring your small inspection mirror and LED torch.
Remember, bending back opposite the way it was damaged is fair play.

It did think of trying to bend back the original, but its a complex shape and I would have to remove it to do that anyway, so I bought an undamaged used one.

The exact correct shape, lines up the bonnet line with the grill/bumper assembly, the headlights to bumper/grill assembly and the bonnet to wing line. I managed to smash the headlights and grill and break the bumper assembly in half at the headlamp line and push the remainder of the headlamps about a inch backwards.

I got a whole front end, including bumper/grill assembly, slam panel/headlight mounting frame, two headlights, actual steel bumper and plastic packing bar for £250.

[xavierx]

From what I can remember, you can do it with the radiators in place. You need to remove the 2 triangle mounts at the top that go into the radiator, the bonet catches, the horns, the radar (if present), 2 crash sensors, the headlight air guides and the radiator air guides and then after removing all the bolts you can access from the top/front there are a bunch that need to be unbolted from the back, so you will need swivel head spanners or low profile ratchets to get in between the radiator and slam panel with your tools.

If I also remember correctly. there were some air guides that were attached with plastic clips that all broke when removing them, so you might need to buy some of those

I actually recorded videos of doing mine with the intention of making a youtube video, but I can't seem to locate the source files currently

[Tony Rama]

Originally Posted by xavierx

From what I can remember, you can do it with the radiators in place. You need to remove the 2 triangle mounts at the top that go into the radiator, the bonet catches, the horns, the radar (if present), 2 crash sensors, the headlight air guides and the radiator air guides and then after removing all the bolts you can access from the top/front there are a bunch that need to be unbolted from the back, so you will need swivel head spanners or low profile ratchets to get in between the radiator and slam panel with your tools.

If I also remember correctly. there were some air guides that were attached with plastic clips that all broke when removing them, so you might need to buy some of those

I actually recorded videos of doing mine with the intention of making a youtube video, but I can't seem to locate the source files currently

Thanks for the info. That's great news about not having to disconnect the rad and air-con rad. Will be a couple of weeks before I can do it since I have to get the replacement front end spayed the right colour.