Securing my wing/deck lid to car
05-01-2013, 04:45 PM
#1
Drifting
Thread Starter
Securing my wing/deck lid to car
Had an interesting experience at my local track this weekend
while driving my 911 RSR.
Lost the rear deck lid/wing at 100+ on a right hand dog leg.
Kept it together for a few hundred yards before some combination of
track bouncing, deceleration for upcoming corner lightened the back end
and around she came.
Long story short -- the wing had separated somewhere near the apex of the turn.
The design of the deck lid was such that it I had welded hood pins.
One of the welds had broken and was augmented with a washer, nut combination.
The track I was running is a bit harsh and vibrations loosened the nut to the point it backed all the way out. I believe the combinations of vibrations on the track and aero fatigued the metal on the other 3 pins weld points. 1 weld broke and 2 bottom point ripped out the sheet metal.
Amazingly the wing has survived reasonably well. Some bumps and bruises but for one spot, just cosmetics. Equally amazing was that 3 of the 4 hood pin points were unscathed. The 4th showed signs where it was the last to give
way from the car and did a little damage to the deck lid and bent the metal ring a tad.
(Below is pictured the previous version, no comments on the wing, etc please :-) It's what I've got, I'm not planning any major alterations, I just want to get back on track quickly (and safely))
I'm somewhat amazed how little the whole assembly was attached together in the first place. Simple 2" hood pin ring plates with 4 rivets into the fiberglass only. The hood pins themselves were adjoined to the body by a simple weld of a nut at each attachment point. That's it.
As best I can tell -- had the one nut not backed all the way out -- that wing/deck lid would still be functioning fine.
However, I certainly don't care to have a repeat incident. I'm trying to figure out the best way to rebuild/reengineer the structure.
At a minimum I'm thinking larger ring plates on both sides of the fiberglass
so that the rivets are catching metal on both sides.
Then some sort of stronger assembly for mounting points.
I'd like to consider some other catch as an additional attachment point in the center top and bottom -- just not sure.
Any pointers, pix, etc would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Mike
while driving my 911 RSR.
Lost the rear deck lid/wing at 100+ on a right hand dog leg.
Kept it together for a few hundred yards before some combination of
track bouncing, deceleration for upcoming corner lightened the back end
and around she came.
Long story short -- the wing had separated somewhere near the apex of the turn.
The design of the deck lid was such that it I had welded hood pins.
One of the welds had broken and was augmented with a washer, nut combination.
The track I was running is a bit harsh and vibrations loosened the nut to the point it backed all the way out. I believe the combinations of vibrations on the track and aero fatigued the metal on the other 3 pins weld points. 1 weld broke and 2 bottom point ripped out the sheet metal.
Amazingly the wing has survived reasonably well. Some bumps and bruises but for one spot, just cosmetics. Equally amazing was that 3 of the 4 hood pin points were unscathed. The 4th showed signs where it was the last to give
way from the car and did a little damage to the deck lid and bent the metal ring a tad.
(Below is pictured the previous version, no comments on the wing, etc please :-) It's what I've got, I'm not planning any major alterations, I just want to get back on track quickly (and safely))
I'm somewhat amazed how little the whole assembly was attached together in the first place. Simple 2" hood pin ring plates with 4 rivets into the fiberglass only. The hood pins themselves were adjoined to the body by a simple weld of a nut at each attachment point. That's it.
As best I can tell -- had the one nut not backed all the way out -- that wing/deck lid would still be functioning fine.
However, I certainly don't care to have a repeat incident. I'm trying to figure out the best way to rebuild/reengineer the structure.
At a minimum I'm thinking larger ring plates on both sides of the fiberglass
so that the rivets are catching metal on both sides.
Then some sort of stronger assembly for mounting points.
I'd like to consider some other catch as an additional attachment point in the center top and bottom -- just not sure.
Any pointers, pix, etc would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Mike
