Wheel arch liner mods / repair

[alicrozier]

As some of you may know the front wheelarches liners of my Exige had worn through. I think this was predominantly from track usage, compressions and high cornering loads. On my '07 Exige there is a front liner section which has lower vents for the oil coolers and covers just up beyond the headlights. Not only had the tyres worn through these liners (fist sized holes) but also wore through the rear of the headlight assemblies - 1" by 1/2" holes just below the upper access grommet (also wearing away some of the grommet). When subsequently driven in the rain, water and road debris is forced into this hole filling up the headlight assemblies to goldfish bowl proportions as witnessed on the Chunnel back from the DP tour - was approx half full of water, near to shorting out the lights! It does drain out again but road grit blocks the drain hole and you're still left with a damp puddle inside the assys causing constant misting.

I have some new liners fitted from MMC but the same thing would happen so I've modded the old worn ones today to give some more protection - they will be the 'track set'. I'll need to remove the headlight assemblies at some point when I have the garage to clean out the grit and dry them out properly, meantime I've patched up the light holes with tape.

I thought about putting some protection on the back of the light assys but in the end put it on the inside of the (worn) liners. The HDPE liner is moulded into quite a complex shape at that point so I made a paper template (reversible for the other liner as they are handed) and used 0.5mm aluminium plate (B&Q). This is flexible enough to be bent to shape by hand and not take up too much space between tyre and headlight. I bonded and sealed it to the inside of the liner and also gaffa'd to be sure - don't want these metal plates coming loose! Trial fitted today and still plenty of room.

Not sure how long they'll last, we'll see...

[alicrozier]

Picture of the worn liner and lights before modification:

[mac]

I've got the same issue and was considering using some kevlar reinforced glassfibre. I wasn't sure about how well it would adhere to the orginal plastic though.



Mac

[robin]

Wow. That looks vaguely pervy

I'm not sure I fancy the bit of metal in the wheel arch liner - no matter how well bonded in, you have to think it's going to make one hell of a mess if it ever breaks away ...

Cheers,
Robin

Mac, I'm not sure that the glass fibre will work any better ...

[Rich H]

PTFE sheet rivetted into place perhaps?

I'm with robin, a sheet of metal falling off in there would be devastating to the clam, wheel, tyre, lights, the lot.
If you are going to put it in ther then use mechanical fixings as well as glue.
Pop rivets with backing washers along the edges for a start, but the liners are crap anyway so will probably tear through in no time.

[alicrozier]

pervy Robin, from the (upskirt ) pic you can clearly see the slightly worn grommet at the top and the hole through the back of the assembly revealing lighting wires.

I was a bit concerned about it potentially coming loose. It's in the inside of the liner, so between liner and lights, and the plate is much bigger than the current hole and shaped to fit the geometry. Also remember the sheet isn't very big and is only 0.5mm thick so very light and probably not as stiff as the liner itself. There is a much heavier metal bracket as part of the liner - it hooks under the main liner as part of the fixing...I was kinda more worried about it wearing through to a 'sharp' edge and damaging the tyre. Regular inspection (pervy grope) required.

I thought about riveting but figured they could cause more problems than they solve.

The other alternative I thought of was to attach the plate to the back of the headlight assy (could use the 3 big fixing bolts) but quite complex to bend the right shape and you'd need to remove it to change a bulb...may be mk2...

...you'd also still get water and road debris inside the wheelarch through the hole in the liner.

[fd]

I expect 0.5mm ally sheet will disintegrate well before you damage anything, the tyre itself will just chew it up . . . I'd rivet it on with spreader washers on both sides . . . that won't come off and if it does nothing would have held it anyway . . . I expect it will simply fall off at the slightest provocation when things bend/flex if you bond it . . .

$0.02

Fd

[alicrozier]

Sounds like a plan. Hopefully I can situate the rivets away from the main wear area.
Thanks for the feedback chaps.

Now just be interested to see how long the plate lasts...

[Rich H]

PTFE sheet
http://directplastics.co.uk/

[alicrozier]

PTFE sheet
http://directplastics.co.uk/

Good site thanks Rich.
I know PTFE is slippy slippy but do you think it'll last much longer than the original HDPE liner? Can't go very thick as it'll just squeeze the gap between tyre and lights...compared to Alu?

Need some sort of fixture on a rolling road to test the options.

[Rich H]

PTFE is teflon basically, so super slippy and realy tough too. 0.5 ali is only one up from tinfoil...

Nothing thin is going to last *that* long in there given what is going on, but if the ali wears through you'll get a razor sharp edge trimming your tyres or it'll rip and leave a jagged mess. PTFE won't rip easily so will wear in situ.

Do one side in ali and one side in PTFE...

[robin]

And then call it an aerospace composite, sell the car ...

[alicrozier]

I could always just remove the lights...

Then just bin the liners and vent the clam...

[Rich H]

Carbon tat is better than ali tat every time...