WORK SAFELY

• Wear thick protective gloves when working with sharp edges, grinding, cutting and using an angle grinder.

• Hold the angle grinder with two hands to control

torque twist and kick-back.

• Wear eye protection when grinding, cutting, wire brushing, sanding, releasing springs and clips, when opening fluid lines and working on overhead parts.

• Wear a particle filter when removing rust and

cleaning brake parts.

• Wear steel toe-capped work shoes that will protect against falling objects and ensure better grip on slippery floors.

• When welding, wear specialist welding protective gloves, clothing and mask, and ensure appropriate fire-fighting equipment is available close by.

• Never work on a cooling system, nor remove the filler cap, until the engine and coolant are fully cooled; and then always remove the filler cap slowly in case of residual pressure.

From within

At the rear corners on both sides, the paint is bubbling as rust is pushing through the steel from the inside of the body capping.

2

Dressed up

At first glance, this rearward face of the body capping looks okay. But it has actually been repaired with body filler, hiding horrors beneath.

3 Getting ugly

This fairly advanced corrosion was only revealed when the hard top sides had been removed, at all of the attachment points for the side panels.

4 Tacky

This glued-down carpeting, which is going to be fully removed anyway, has to be peeled away from the inside areas of the body cappings for their removal.

5

Additional fixings

Now that all of the rivets have been drilled out, there only remains an M6 bolt at each side to remove at the front, using 10 mm spanners.

11 Slow and careful

The capping can now be gently eased up at the rear, so that the main body of it can disengage from the aluminium bodywork.

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A bargain

This good secondhand set of galvanised cappings was less than half the cost of the best price I could find for brand-new cappings.

19 The right equipment

Using a ‘lazy tong’ riveting tool, the corner cappings are soon fixed in position on the rear body tub, by 17 mm blind rivets.

22 First on

The new galvanised corner bracket cappings are riveted in place first, using four 17 mm blind rivets on each side of the rear opening.

20 Shiny!

The corner cappings are also known as light cluster cappings, and are offered up to their place on both sides of the rear body tub.

21