Took my rear wing off today as i wanted to fix up some rust on the hatch. Came off fairly easy, still took over an hour though. Only one bolt fell off due to rust. Amazingly i managed to get the bottom bit of trim of the rear window without breaking any tabs. Did a little bit of damage to the paint getting it off but i'm repainting this section anyway.







After reading your thread Andrew when you restored your AC I still have a few questions if that's cool. I know your good at these type of repairs.

Did you remove all the sticky rubber from the rear wing? Was hard enough getting it off the car let alone the rubber wing. By the way, adhesive remover wipes work well in softening it up. Although will be harder to work with on a soft surface.

How did you treat the rust on the rear wing? I won't be able to get to all of it without cutting into and exposing certain parts and i don't really want to do that. You mention filling it in with urethane. What exactly did you use? The two end bolts of the wing are partially loose from rust but still solid enough i think to last awhile. A bit of urethane around the base should hold them steady i hope.





Lastly, what did you use to reattach the wing to the body? I'm thinking silastic should do the trick.

I'm also thinking of deleting the rear wiper. It's never worked anyway. Just thinking the rear wing would look a bit silly with the mould designed for the rear wiper still there. I can't think of anything that would fill that space and have the same finish as the original.

Cheers for any input into this. I'm not very good at body repairs.

Looks great Simon,
Leave the sticky on the wing, don't take it off.....this will help you when you reinstall it.

I removed any loose rust and sprayed with rust converter, I to had one of my bolts fall out.

After it had dried I used Sikaflex urethane and injected it into every possible area that was exposed, at this point I reinstalled the thread, believe me once its dry it will take some effort to pull it put again!

I used a cheap black silastic to reattach..........never again, after one year it has lifted in some spots.......a cheaper alternative is to use Selleys roof and gutter sealant or urethane.

I've never really looked into deleting the wiper arm hole, would be tricky to do and get flat...............maybe leave it there for now and just cover up the hatch hole with a rubber grommet.

Cheers for that Andrew. Yeah I wasn't sure if i should just fill every gap in the wing. It's a tricky part to get on there right so that water can drain properly. Was sort of made to rust with the channels and cavities they built into it.

I'll give the sikaflex a go. 3M make a urethane product that is used for adhering body panels, can't remember what it's called. Cost might be a bit much for this though.

I'm going to leave the wiper where it is. I've noticed that most cordia owners that have deleted it don't have the wing in place. I've never been a fan of the cordia without the wing....sort of gives the car it's look....plus it makes a great shelf for putting shit on.

Leave the drain holes in place, don't fill them.........mine work really well after a wash, just try and keep them clean, this will stop the hatch from completely rusting out.

If this is off any use when I refitted the wing on my car I ran a small bead of sikaflex around the drain channels so any water won't get under the wing, just run through the channels.

Cheers. Yeah i will be keeping those channels free. I opened them up a bit too at the bottom of the wing. Will definitely run sikaflex around them. Here's what i've been doing.

Filled in the wing cavities


When i sanded this back the rust around the left bolt hole fell apart leaving a bit of a cavity. A bit of bog and it's no worries.


Primer


Spray putty


Bit too much spray putty. This took an hour and a half but it came up smooth.


More primer


Colour. Another coat was put on after this photo was taken.



I also cut the rear wiper solenoid and bracket since i never use it and it's not wired up anyway. Wanted to take a bit of weight of the rear hatch. My struts are not in the best condition and am sick of the hatch hitting me on the head when i'm getting something out of the back. I know i should re-gas them but that money is better spent elsewhere.

Cut the thing the wiper sits on.




Epoxy should prevent the shaft from moving. My rear wiper will now be purely ornamental.

Got the wing back on.




Finally got to fit these enkei's i picked up for a bargain a few years ago. Was waiting till i needed new tyres.


New tyres, new shocks all round, car should be good for a little while longer.

That looks awesome Simon, keep up the good work!

Cheers Andrew

Nice work mate :-)
Is that a w18 paint code?

Cheers Mick

Nah unfortunately. I know it's bodgy but i don't have a compressor at the moment so had to use a tin of paint from autopro. Colour didn't quite match. Will be looking to repaint the entire car at some point so will get it looking uniform then. Fixing the rust was my priority and as that wing is NEVER coming off again it doesn't really matter what colour it is underneath. The paint code on my build plate just says WP. A quick check of the internet tells me W18 and WP are the same, Sarajevo White. Seems I have a Bosnian coloured car.

http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/colour_codes_mitsubishi_M-Z.php about halfway down.

Thanks for that link! I just learnt my car is Onyx Black! lol cool!