Scientifically proven to not be me that breaks it, all it has to do is sit there and it breaks itself
As it stands, it now has a naked bum.
Had a wee bit of a PITA afternoon after getting out of my coursework early, so thought i'd pop up and strip the back down so i can decide what to do with the shell (and given the lack of cinqs for sale, restoration is now as much as a possibility as transferring the good bits onto another cinq)
So i got it up in the air, wheels off (one has developed a slow puncture, and with sitting has flat spotted, so it's a binner), removed the back lights and got the rear bumper off, which was a right ****ing pain to do. The Hormann bumper is an even worse design than the standard Fiat one. The 3 upper inside bolts came off no bother, the drivers side upper rear one was a bit sticky but once started no real bother. Lower drivers side bumper bracket one was where problems began, siezed solid. But with the stupid, flimsy retaining strap on the Hormann bumper, i just sheared that off when i tried to free the bolt. (oh well, it can be puttyed back on). Then onto the passenger side..... lower bolt, similar issue, similar result, the retaining strap sheared. Upper P/S bolt..... was a nightmare. The Hormann bumper has a nut set/welded into the bumper. When i tried to undo the bolt, that nut failed and with no access to it, there was no way of undoing the retaining bolt, so i had only one real option.
Force it, and if the bumper snapped, so ****ing be it. Hopefully the nut seating snaps out before bumper does though.
Well, it didn't.
I ended up tearing.... yes, tearing, a hole in the cars retaining bracket on the quarter panel, the bolt burst out of that. Only damage done to the outside of the bumper was at the corner of the wheelarch where it got a tiny crush when trying to bend the bumper off and break the nut. As it turned out that was a better than "best case scenario", because it means i can bent the retainer back into place and if the hole is too big for a bolt, just slap a washer in, job done
so that was a minor win.
Anyway, exhaust not fully off too, and one very naked looking cinq arse in the air. i set about attacking the inner arches with a chisel.
Of course, the was to remove flaked paint and inspect the soundness rust coloured metal that was forming in the usual areas. Overall though, was DELIGHTED with what i found, with the paint off, i found the metal was still solid, all just surface rust, so sanded it back. Just needs sealed up now
Hope to attack the sills and front p/s later this week when my hand heels up a bit, today was sore with already badly skinned knuckles and fingers, washing the dirt off was especially sore so i'm not doing any more until that's a little better :laugh:
