bob hughes
Luke Skywalker
Offline
After much gnashing of teeth and scratching my head I have finally got around to fitting the works type boot rack that Santa got me for last Christmas, just in time for the short trek to Goodwood revival at the end of next week.
The Domestic Goddess just happened to mention that we were meeting up with around a dozen Belgians and wouldn't it be nice if we could take a load of spare collapsible chairs, and wasn't it a shame that the boot rack had not yet been fitted.
I had been working on another method of fixing the bottom of the 'vertical' struts but I must confess that I had not got very far with it. So, yesterday I took the bull by the horns and using the ball pien hammer and some protective cloth I stuck a blow, well several actually, to shape those bottom fixing brackets to the curves of the boot edge, shame they do not come pre-shaped there is a great danger of damaging the chrome.
That done successfully, I then set about the hinge fixings, now one of the hinge pins was fine, the other was a bear to remove and I subsequently found that it was a bit of old wood screw thread, ( did I say that this car has been repatriated from the USA !!) any way quickly moving on, I repaired the worn hinge section with a new sleeve of brass tubing of the correct size for the new hinge pins and set about fitting the rack to the boot lid. That's where the wheels really fell off.
I am not sure if it was a rogue unit or they are all made the same but the two lugs that are supposed to be fitted to the new hinge pins were around 5mm or more too close together. I was working up a plan to make new hinge pins to alleviate the problem, however I could see problems looming there as well so in the end I judiciously cranked the lugs over using a large vice and some grips taking care not to damage the chrome, it worked a treat.
My question to the assembled good and the great who have carried out this work themselves is :- have you experienced similar dimensional problems with your racks? I would be interested to find out as I am considering writing a stiff letter on cardboard to my supplier to get their manufacturer to start making 'em right, considering that they are not cheap.
Bob
The Domestic Goddess just happened to mention that we were meeting up with around a dozen Belgians and wouldn't it be nice if we could take a load of spare collapsible chairs, and wasn't it a shame that the boot rack had not yet been fitted.
I had been working on another method of fixing the bottom of the 'vertical' struts but I must confess that I had not got very far with it. So, yesterday I took the bull by the horns and using the ball pien hammer and some protective cloth I stuck a blow, well several actually, to shape those bottom fixing brackets to the curves of the boot edge, shame they do not come pre-shaped there is a great danger of damaging the chrome.
That done successfully, I then set about the hinge fixings, now one of the hinge pins was fine, the other was a bear to remove and I subsequently found that it was a bit of old wood screw thread, ( did I say that this car has been repatriated from the USA !!) any way quickly moving on, I repaired the worn hinge section with a new sleeve of brass tubing of the correct size for the new hinge pins and set about fitting the rack to the boot lid. That's where the wheels really fell off.
I am not sure if it was a rogue unit or they are all made the same but the two lugs that are supposed to be fitted to the new hinge pins were around 5mm or more too close together. I was working up a plan to make new hinge pins to alleviate the problem, however I could see problems looming there as well so in the end I judiciously cranked the lugs over using a large vice and some grips taking care not to damage the chrome, it worked a treat.
My question to the assembled good and the great who have carried out this work themselves is :- have you experienced similar dimensional problems with your racks? I would be interested to find out as I am considering writing a stiff letter on cardboard to my supplier to get their manufacturer to start making 'em right, considering that they are not cheap.
Bob