Boot adjustment

Woodzy · Post by **Woodzy** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 1:25 pm

Greetings fellow finners,
The boot on Bev's EK has never sat right from the day she bought it. The drivers side spring-hinge mechanism was badly bodged with splatter weld and the wrong spring (the right side spring in this pic).

Ages ago I obtained one of RET's boot spring pin kit, and with FBcruisin's (Rob) help we tried to fit it. This was when we discovered the wrong spring etc. Many thanks to BILLYBLACKARROW for giving me the correct spring (left side in the above pic) NOTE: the centre tang on the correct left sping reaches across to fill the centre inner coil, the incorrect right side tang goes 1/2 way and pops out of the slotted pin.

Today, I decide to attack the thing and fit the correct spring & the pin kit. THAT part seems ok, boot lid will now hold itself up without the NASCO boot lid holder-upper-er!
But now my problem is the boot lid will not line up.

This is the original passenger's side spring assy, with the centre slot horizontal and notice in the top right corner there is a 1/2" gap between the curved bracket and its stopper.

This is the driver's side spring assy with the RET pin fitted, the centre slot is off horizontal and notice in the top left right corner there is no gap between the curved bracket and its stopper.

Also, you can see here how the drivers side boot bracket is adjusted as far foward as possible showing the witness marks of where it was originally.

But this still leaves a HUGE gap when the boot lid is closed.

Therefore the WHOLE boot lid is off-kilter..........big gap

no gap.....

Now as there is no side adjustment, only forward and back, could it be that the whole boot sping mount assy is bent inwards?
If anyone has any tips, ideas, thoughts, advice, tutorials or just an opinion, your help would be very muchly appreciated.
Ive scratched a bald patch on the top of me head!

cheers
Woodzy

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 3:30 pm

Hi Woodzy, just looking at these two pics the second one with rets pin kit looks to me, because it is not horizontal in the middle its pushing the boot outwards thus causing the gap, I don't know how these pin kits are fitted but if you can turn the whole spring set up clockwise as your looking at the pic this would get the same angle as the other one, hope you can understand what I meen.

Woodzy wrote:

Woodzy · Post by **Woodzy** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:44 pm

Trev,
Thanks for your reply.
Yep I knew what you meant. Funnily enough, rolling the spring clockwise only moves it further forward.
Only option I had was to remove the passenger side original spring and see if the lid would sit right with no tension on it.
NO.
You can see from these two pix that the brackets holding the lid still sit unevenly and dont hit their respective stoppers the same.

The passenger side with the 1/2"+ gap......

The drivers side with no gap, hitting home.....

So, My only possible conclusion is....
that the drivers side curved bracket is bent up too much.
Perhaps some event in its life with the previous owner caused it to be bent up and that was what prompted the bodgey repair. (the scuff marks and bashing with a hammer crumple marks were not done by me)

But I'll welcome any other points of view till I track down some "unbent, original" boot lid brackets to test my theory.

cheers
Woodzy

PS, I'll be fitting the other RET spring adjuster in the mean time
here's a link from the FE FC forum
http://fefcholden.org.au/forum/index.php?topic=10609.0

BILLY BLACKARROW · Post by **BILLY BLACKARROW** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:26 pm

You can have a look at mine no boot on but hindges haven't been moved P.M. If you want to have a look & address BILLY

BILLY BLACKARROW · Post by **BILLY BLACKARROW** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 11:30 pm

first pic drive side second pic pass side

drive side

pass side
Dont know if this help's dont worry about pointed area marked by mistake BILLY

Woodzy · Post by **Woodzy** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:57 pm

Thanks for that Billy,

I did notice in your pix that the passenger side upper linkage pin hole was not flogged out like the drivers side and both of mine.
Me thinks theres a need for repair there too.
More swotting up for me to fix this problem.

cheers
Woodzy

Devilrod · Post by **Devilrod** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:48 pm

A quick way to check your hinges aren't bent would be to get some paper and trace one hinge, then compare it to the other. By either tracing it with a different colour or just holding it up to the other. It will eliminate one possible problem.

fb cruisin · Post by **fb cruisin** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:31 pm

Woodzy wrote:Thanks for that Billy,

I did notice in your pix that the passenger side upper linkage pin hole was not flogged out like the drivers side and both of mine.
Me thinks theres a need for repair there too.
More swotting up for me to fix this problem.

cheers
Woodzy

Damn I feel bad now cause I told you they were a piece of piss to fit and that it will sort out your boot problems

And mine were so easy

Woodzy · Post by **Woodzy** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:47 am

Fret not Rob, youre off the hook mate....

It wouldve been easy;
IF, it had the correct spring,
IF, it wasnt a bodgey repair in the first place,
IF, I had a clue,

if, if, if.

1st, wrong spring, fixed that

2nd, thought it was the flogged out linkage holes. But dropping the springs off and allowing the linkages to dangle disproved this as the hinges were still uneven

3rd, bent hinge, yet to be determined, thanks for the tip Devilrod. I do have a nos RHS hinge assy coming next week, just in case.

4th, and WORST case scenario...... twisted boot lid.

5th, weld the boot lid in place

But yeh Rob from a simple RET pin fitting, this boot hinge drama has unfolded into a major mystery. Where's Sherlock when ya need him?

Woodzy

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 4:44 pm

Not a bad idea that, weld the boot lid on and cut it out the correct shape

Woodzy · Post by **Woodzy** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 5:54 pm

Trev, yeh why not, its only an old car... and HERS!

These hinges have got me buggered, here's some more pix......

LHS (passenger) side view, note the gaps below and between the stopper and the curved part of the hinge

RHS (driver) side view

LHS (passenger) under view

RHS (driver) under view

Do my eyes deceive me? or are the curves in these brackets different, or is it just the photos?

Thats it, lid & hinges are coming off for a proper inspection.
Am sorry to harp on about this and flood this thread with photos, but am keen to solve this. Hopefully its an education for everyone too.

cheers
Woodzy

Devilrod · Post by **Devilrod** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:21 pm

Woodzy get out there with some paper and trace them like I saiid. It'll take less than 5 minutes and it will tell you if the hinges are different too each other....

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:41 pm

From what I can see in this first pic, it looks like its been damaged (top right of pic)

Woodzy wrote: LHS (passenger) side view, note the gaps below and between the stopper and the curved part of the hinge

as opposed to this pic

Woodzy wrote:RHS (driver) side view

FB MAD · Post by **FB MAD** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:56 pm

I'm thinking along the same line as Trev is.

The left hinge looks to be bent in the pic. Maybe a previous owner bent the hinge to compensate for wear in the pin and spring assembly beforehand

.

Woodzy · Post by **Woodzy** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:59 pm

UPDATE:
Well after a few weeks of being too busy, swottin up a bit more and taking delivery of a NOS RHS boot hinge, the verdict is now in.
The old RHS boot hinge was, as suspected, bent.
The pic below shows the unpainted NOS hinge above the bent one.

Overlaying the NOS hinge over the old bent one, the difference is clear.....

BTW, the old LHS hinge and the new NOS RHS hinge have the same profile.

More later when I have cleaned up the good hinges to go back on.

cheers
Woodzy

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