Removable Rear Valance

Written by misterecks

After watching many resto threads elsewhere I figured a removable rear valance would be a good idea for my car as I always seem to be pulling the engine out. Having suffered some misfortune of late (read having been stupid lately) I am very glad I did this mod, it does make things much easier.

Starting off with a cheapo pattern valance I got with a box full of repair panels my first task was to make it fit.

Not too bad here:

But you can see here the clip for the seal is miles off...

...and this isn't right:

After a bit of head scratching I had only one idea....

drill all the spot welds out and take it to bits!

First up I cut and shut the side part that didn't fit, the other side was fine.

Then reassembled it all as best I could

Next up I wanted to secure the inner sections to the body somehow so it wouldn't be just the wing bolts holding it on, to achieve this I trimmed the tab that is usually welded and drilled two holes.

Drilled the body to suit and did a trial fit

Happy that it worked and everything was in the right place I welded some threaded plates in place. View from inside

...and outside...

and that was it pretty much done.

The valance is held on with the two lower wing bolts each side and two M6 machine screws into the front section of the valance as shown.

All that was left to do was the engine seal and decklid seal. The engine seal was fitted in three pieces, one on each engine bay side tray and the third on the valance. I cut the seal where the three pieces meet at an angle so that they overlap when it's all fitted up.

The decklid seal is fitted in one piece but only secured to the two sides of the engine bay so that when I want to take the valance off I just have to pull the seal out of the seal track and tape it to the decklid spring out of the way...

Decklid seal in place

Pulled out of it's track

Taped out of the way

And finally, the finished job. I think it looks OK.

Having had the engine in and out twice in the last month or so I can confirm that it does make the job much easier, as does the HiPacs but that's another story!

Last Updated on Monday, 12 October 2009 21:55