Any Advice, Part 2!

[Chris152]

Hopefully a quick one - can anyone advise how to remove these clips? They are inside the spare wheel wells, holding the plastic trim beneath the rear bumper, 2 on each side. Do we just get hold of the thicker end and pull each in turn (there are two clips in each connection)? And is replacement a simple job of pushing them back in, one at a time?
We're exploring signs of brownish matter before heading to the welder.
Thanks
C

[Bob Meadows]

Going from memory:~
You push/pull the thinner metal arm through the plastic clip- it should then slide out, once released the plastic part can be removed out from the wing etc.
Regards Bob.

[Stephen Edwin]

My "memory" is. Scratch one's head. Cogitate. Realise the solution. And now forgettery has taken over.

Bob will be right.

Stephen

.

[Clifford Pope]

My recollection is that you compress the metal bit slightly against the panel at the same time as sliding it out. There's probably a special tool, but I don't remember any great difficulty - perhaps using a spread-open pair of pliars?

At least you haven't any underseal or sound-deadening on yours - I had to hack out a lot of bitumin before I could even see what the clip looked like.

[Chris152]

Thanks all - your memory serves you well, Bob.

There is rust there, apparently easy to sort. The mudflap bolts didn't unscrew but snapped easily, that's another job. More tricky to sort is the rust under the tailgate/ behind the rear bumper. The chap who just looked at it said better to buy panels than try to fabricate sections, but hunting the net's turned up nowt.

I've had another quote, based on photos, that came to somewhere between £900 and 1200 plus VAT - it's from a company that restores classic cars, so probably an expensive way to proceed. If I could get hold of the panels, the chap I know could do it cheaper, but there we go!

Pics attached, in case anyone has any thoughts. One's from under the rear bumper area, the other from inside the lidded under-boot storage space. Not nice, but we want to get it fixed before it gets worse. I've been wondering about grinding it all out and using glass fibre, which I can work with reasonably well, though it's a great car, no other significant rust, and probably worth doing right, I think.

Any thoughts really appreciated!

ps Another option is to have the chap I know cut it out and replace with fairly crudely fabricated, flat sections (ho doesn't have the kit to shape the metal). It's all in out-of-sight areas - would that be a reasonable solution? The idea's to keep the car working properly, not to achieve a concours restoration... :-)

[Stephen Edwin]

Hello

Sad to say that rust is typical of the 240 estate. It will go deep. There are threads about repairing that rust. Some with very interesting photographs.

In 2017 I bought one pre-shaped panel from a Volvo dealer. FRF Swansea.

Slam panel. part number 3528946.
£72 inc VAT and forum member discount.
plus delivery.

That panel deals with the most complex shape. Basically the part of the car that the tailgate slam locks on to.

I hope that helps.

Stephen.

.

[Bob Meadows]

Some details are included here:~https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showt...e+repair+panel

I believe Brookhouse can supply a repair piece for the top section but other panels will need fabricating:~ A forum search will also give further restoration details to this area.
A quick look at your car- I would say we have far worse cars that have been saved, this area is a well known rust point. I would also remove the plastic trim that sits under the bumpers and check the area further- I also removed the bumper attachments to enable a wax treatment to sprayed into the chassis.
The larger panel sections can be formed without great difficulty I believe and this is a route that I would take rather than using fiberglass - again I would think a part section may suffice for your car providing the rust hasn't gone too far- a fabricator working on classic cars should be able to do this for you and as you say it doesn't have to be a factory finish as the area is hidden but you only want to do it once.
Good Luck.
Regards Bob.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Chris152

Thanks all - your memory serves you well, Bob.

There is rust there, apparently easy to sort. The mudflap bolts didn't unscrew but snapped easily, that's another job. More tricky to sort is the rust under the tailgate/ behind the rear bumper. The chap who just looked at it said better to buy panels than try to fabricate sections, but hunting the net's turned up nowt.

I've had another quote, based on photos, that came to somewhere between £900 and 1200 plus VAT - it's from a company that restores classic cars, so probably an expensive way to proceed. If I could get hold of the panels, the chap I know could do it cheaper, but there we go!

Pics attached, in case anyone has any thoughts. One's from under the rear bumper area, the other from inside the lidded under-boot storage space. Not nice, but we want to get it fixed before it gets worse. I've been wondering about grinding it all out and using glass fibre, which I can work with reasonably well, though it's a great car, no other significant rust, and probably worth doing right, I think.

Any thoughts really appreciated!

ps Another option is to have the chap I know cut it out and replace with fairly crudely fabricated, flat sections (ho doesn't have the kit to shape the metal). It's all in out-of-sight areas - would that be a reasonable solution? The idea's to keep the car working properly, not to achieve a concours restoration... :-)

That looks pretty rough Chris!

First thoughts are does your welder know of any replacement sills that have a similar curve to the rear valance section? The rest looks (from what i can see in the pics) like it could be folded easily over a piece of angle iron and i would think your cheaper guy could manage that. If not, i'm sure a friendly local engineering shop could do it fairly cheaply.

[Chris152]

Dave: 'First thoughts are does your welder know of any replacement sills that have a similar curve to the rear valance section? The rest looks (from what i can see in the pics) like it could be folded easily over a piece of angle iron and i would think your cheaper guy could manage that. If not, i'm sure a friendly local engineering shop could do it fairly cheaply.' [I couldn't quote after first starting writing.]

Ok, maybe we have a learning opportunity here?!

The two lengths that need replacing have uniform curves along their length. For several years i've been working with wood and think I could plane to shape the curves needed in wood, and then shape sheet metal to those curves. (I've watched videos of people tapping it to shape around a wooden former online, what could go wrong?!) If we make up the two sections, full width, I could ask my friend to attach them. I'm assuming that to join to the existing, clean metal we'd create a recessed indent along that line so there's overlap? I can check this.

I'm writing this from a totally naive perspective, but think we could do it. Tell me if it's a bad idea?! If it's not, it'd be a really good thing to learn for the lad.

Bob/ Stephen - the top section's no longer available at Brookhouse, but ours shows no sign of decay from what we can see. They have another that can apparently be adapted tho, if we need it.

Worst case scenario, it's off to the classic car repair shop, but I'd like us to try sorting in so far as we can first.

Thanks all!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Chris152

Dave: 'First thoughts are does your welder know of any replacement sills that have a similar curve to the rear valance section? The rest looks (from what i can see in the pics) like it could be folded easily over a piece of angle iron and i would think your cheaper guy could manage that. If not, i'm sure a friendly local engineering shop could do it fairly cheaply.' [I couldn't quote after first starting writing.]

Ok, maybe we have a learning opportunity here?!

The two lengths that need replacing have uniform curves along their length. For several years i've been working with wood and think I could plane to shape the curves needed in wood, and then shape sheet metal to those curves. (I've watched videos of people tapping it to shape around a wooden former online, what could go wrong?!) If we make up the two sections, full width, I could ask my friend to attach them. I'm assuming that to join to the existing, clean metal we'd create a recessed indent along that line so there's overlap? I can check this.

I'm writing this from a totally naive perspective, but think we could do it. Tell me if it's a bad idea?! If it's not, it'd be a really good thing to learn for the lad.

Bob/ Stephen - the top section's no longer available at Brookhouse, but ours shows no sign of decay from what we can see. They have another that can apparently be adapted tho, if we need it.

Worst case scenario, it's off to the classic car repair shop, but I'd like us to try sorting in so far as we can first.

Thanks all!

Wonderful Chris, that is exactly the right attitude: use your woodworking skills, then have a go at sheet metalwork to make up the sections and get a chap with a MIG or spot welder to attach them. You may need to buy yourself some panel beating hammers and a dolly (cheap), but I’d see no reason why your idea wouldn’t work perfectly well.

Well done Chris - you will get this issue solved - you and your boy will be better for it.

Alan