Lemon Lupo - is it repairable?

[stuboy]

On 06/10/2024 at 15:30, bunglebus said:

her injuries are a bit better

hope nothing too bad.

[bunglebus]

3 hours ago, red5 said:

I'd check the subframe-tend to get shoved back.  Measure wheel centre to wheel centre avec measure tape X1. 

It does measure 1cm longer on the driver's side ( was hit on OSF wheel by an overtaking car) but I just can't see what's moved. Measurements taken with the steering wheel straight ahead, but the wheel is turned about 30° to the right when driving straight ahead now 🤔 

Obviously that distance from front to rear wheel centre changes as you turn, so I'm not convinced it's a reliable measurement 

[red5]

Just measure them from rim lip to rim lip whilst respective sides are 'straight ahead'.  👍

[bunglebus]

On 17/10/2024 at 21:22, red5 said:

Just measure them from rim lip to rim lip whilst respective sides are 'straight ahead'.  👍

Checked that - exactly the same wheelbase side to side, but about half a turn from one side being parallel to the body, to the other. Massively toed in! I can adjust for that but something must be bent or moved for it to happen

[bunglebus]

It's about time I tried to fix this poor thing. I still have no idea what has been knocked out of kilter, but the lower arm seems like a cheap enough place to start

This should be a nice easy job, but turned into a half day battle, anti roll bar link nut spun on the thread, so needed attacking with the Dremel

I really struggled getting the ball joint separated, not having enough hands to hit both sides of the hub while levering the arm, I thought I'd have better access with the disc off, then discovered someone had fucked the lower caliper bolt

After much, much fighting, I somehow got the disc off and pads out of the caliper, then I could slide the caliper over the bolt and attack it with grips

Success, but more parts needed. 

Getting the new arm on was a bit of a fight as the anti roll bar is right in the way, took a brave pill and undid the other side to allow it to move freely. 

With it back on it's wheels, things were still not right, heavily toed in and the camber looked odd. Measuring with a spirit level, OS has quite a lot of negative, but the NS is positive! This is strange as measuring one of the others, they have a little bit of negative on both sides. This is adjustable via the bottom shock mounts (which were FT). Adjusting the OS for minimum camber, and the NS for maximum improved things, but there's still excessive neg on the OS.

Now I think about it, I used the watch the Mrs turn left opposite the house before reversing onto the drive, and the NSF wheel always used to scrub and look like it had positive camber. Next step is to fit the original shocks from the new open air Lupo (it's on coilovers) as I suspect one may be bent.

I also had a play with the tracking and got it much better, was hugely toed in after the accident, need to fine tune it once the rest of the suspension is done.

Lastly I measured across the crossmember where the suspension arms mount, this is the furthest forward part and the most likely to have got bent - measures exactly the same as one of the other cars so no worries there.

I do wish there was a smoking gun as to what's got tweaked, but there are no witness marks, bends etc to be seen anywhere.

Off to order bits!

[bunglebus]

Swapped the low mileage front shocks off the Open Air onto this one, fitted new anti roll bar links and had a further play with the tracking and camber. Got it much better now, need to tweak the NS a bit as I've not got enough neg camber now, but there's loads of adjustment left. 

Track rod nut was well seized but relented with a bit of lateral thinking. Anti roll bar links are a fight so I devised a way of pulling the bar down against the arm:

Also, these things give me the fear, I always make sure they're pointing away from everything but it's still a relief to get the top nut back on

Looking closely at the parts, the OS shock had been replaced with a non-genuine one at some point, bad practice. They're similar, but obviously different once you notice (ignore the "old", that was just me making sure I assembled the right bits)

[bunglebus]

Time to do more fixes. Changed the knackered caliper bolts and sleeves using a kit from Autodoc. All went OK until I tried to refit the caliper, just wouldn't sit right in the carrier. Then I noticed this

A dim bulb eventually illuminated in my head, I'd kind of chucked it back together and finger tightened the bolts last time, as I knew I'd be taking it apart again, and moving it up and down the drive, the pedal was horrible and spongy. It seems that due to the design of the caliper, it's possible to get the inner pad caught behind the carrier, so when you press the pedal it can't slide, hence it's bent. 

Luckily I am an incurable hoarder, so I kept the nearly new pads off the auto Lupo when I changed them due to knackered discs

Of course that means I had to take the other side apart as well, and wouldn't you know it, the bottom bolt is even more fucked than the driver's side, yay!

Eddie came to be no help whatsoever 

Having learned how to sort this on the other side, I once again somehow managed to get the disc and pads off while the caliper was still attached by one bolt. Not easy, but it's possible. Then it's easier to get a pair of locking pliers on the bolt and wind it out. I even had the forethought to order two slider kits...

All back together now but the ABS light is on, probably as I forgot to plug the sensor back in before starting it. Fault code reader doesn't go near ABS, hopefully it'll sort itself out with a run, not that I can do that until I've done the next bit - bodywork 

[Sigmund Fraud]

In my experience, the best way to remove those caliper sliders is to cut the rubber boot with a stanley knife to expose the cap head and use an Irwin Bolt Grip on that.

[bunglebus]

I did cut the rubber sleeve off, but I've only got the internal type of Irwin thingies. The head of the lower bolt is really shallow for some reason, easy to see why it gets rounded out. The new ones are much better in that regard

*bugger it, just remembered I do have a set of Irwins somewhere, what an idiot! Oh well, they came out one way or another 

[bunglebus]

Woke up in a spannering mind of mood, so I ripped the bumper and indicator panel off the Lupo

Interesting sign of a previous mishap 

I love my old Stanley screwdrivers, I've got a handful nabbed off family members and from boot sales as they're so good - but I finally found something even tougher than they are

Getting the wing off is fairly straightforward, but there are a couple of less obvious fixings, one under the scuttle trim (which is going to be a right pig to refit), and one at the bottom of the wing, from under the arch into the A pillar. That last one is hidden by thick sealant. The last annoying one was half of a pair that attach it to the sill, and refused to budge, eventually rounding off and having to be drilled out.

None of this would be a problem if the woman who we bought the parts off of hadn't had exactly the same problems, so she's just yanked the wing off with those three still attached! It wasn't obvious until I tried to test fit it, but it's properly bent out of shape, to the point there's actually a split in the return lip as it's been pulled so hard. One of the screws was still in the wing, held in place by sealant. Not impressed.

I think I can get it back into something like the right shape, but it looks like I'll have to do a welding repair where the split is, not something I'd planned on, that was the whole point in buying panels off the same colour car. Bumper is fairly shit too so I think it's all going to need painting. Looks ok test fitted I suppose 

All this is extra annoying, as of the three we have, this was by far the best in terms of bodywork before the stupid woman in the 500 drove into it 🙄