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AR7E - Alcester Racing 7's Equipe
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The first (and most obvious) stage in the carbon wing fitting process is to remove the old glass-fibre items.
<Click Image for Full Size> The wings are held on by approximately eight bolts each side. Some of these go into rivnuts (captive nuts in the ali paneling), and some go through the paneling and are held in place by conventional nuts in the boot area. You will also need to remove the rear-lights and disconnect them from the loom (there is a push-fit connector hidden behind the large grommet in the wheel arch. You can just see it on the left in the following picture.
<Click Image for Full Size> Now, if we compare the old and new wings...
Images - Left: GF wing with cutouts, Right: CF wing without cutouts ...the eagle-eyed amongst you should notice that there are no bolt-holes or cutouts in the new carbon wings (notice the yellow inner band of the wing - this is the kevlar layer...) We started by carefully marking and measuring the two cutouts in the inner flange. Please note that the old and new wings are NOT exact copies and so measurement is frequently best performed by offering the new wings up to the car, and marking by eye... The cutouts fit around the front suspension mounting point and (in our case) the currently unused Watts-link mounting point just below and behind the wiring grommet. The cutouts are removed using a Dremel-style grinding tool (note - if you have a cheap drill, the lateral forces of the grinding might kill the bearings in the drill - they are only designed for longitudinal forces really...)
Image - Dremelling the cutouts... <Click Image for Full Size> With the cutouts complete, the wing can be fully offered up to the car in order to mark the positions of the existing rivnuts and bolt holes. We suggest that you do these a few at a time - starting with the lowest bolts, then the uppermost location and then filling in the rest - although it is repetitious, trial fitting each new bolt before moving on to mark and drill the next is a good idea...
Image - chalking up the next set of holes... Note - carbon is tough stuff - make sure you've got nice sharp drill-bits and be prepared to resharpen them or replace them mid-job... Once all of the holes are in place, you just need to fit the rubber edging strip between the body panel and the new wing, and tighten all of the bolts. Oh, did I mention that replacing the bolts with nylon items is a good idea...? In the event of a minor prang, the nylon bolts break and minimise the damage to the wing and body panel. Don't worry if you can't source any at the time of wing-fitting - you can replace them one at a time with the wing in situ... Eventually, you'll have both wings on and looking like this...
Nice, but not finished yet... The 'final' job is to refit the rear lights. This is actually quite a tricky and time-consuming job to get right. Many people seem to just through them onto the car - and usually end up with them at funny heights and angles. First of all, you must work out roughly where they are going to be placed - and then drill the cable hole (big enough to fit the connecting plug through...) If you don't do this first, you won't be able to trial-fit them for final positioning...
Note that carbon does not drill cleanly. You might want to cover the loose fibre ends with epoxy resin to seal them. Really and truly, the best way to do this job is not with a ruler, but by eye. We placed a long, straight rod on top of the fog and reversing lights to give an (approximately) level visual cue, and then taped the lights into position...
By taking a few minutes each time, and standing well back, we were able to get the lights into the best aesthetic position - only then to be double-checked by measurement. Pick a corner and drill the first hole - then go to the diametrically opposed corner and drill that. Trial-fit the light - noting that if it is not level due to drilling inaccuracies, you will need to elongate one of the holes and turn it into a slot for adjustment purposes. If this happens, you might need to fit a backing fastener to allow the self-tapping screw to bite. Right, well that's about that then - remember to plug the lights back in (doh!) and make sure you haven't swapped left for right... and there you have it.
Lovely.
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