Straightening a bent tow eye.
Hi Froggies.
When the truckies delivered the CX to me in Melbourne, I found evidence that the car had rolled backwards at some stage and been halted by hitting something very solid with the passenger side tow eye. It was possibly a gutter or a rock, because the tow eye metal is very heavy gauge and really hard to bend. I took some photos to show what it should look like compared to how it was.
I managed to straighten it out though. The first step was to remove the rear bumper bar. Then the rear stone tray came off so I could straighten that, and I found that it also required a rivet to replace a spot weld.
By using a short length of chain , two bolts, a piece of redgum plate and a car jack I was able to pull the eye back up to it's approximate normal position.
Actually I took it a little past its normal position towards the centre line of the car. The job was half done at this point with no need to heat the metal support. However, the eye was still pointing downward too far. It was supposed to be level like the driver side tow eye.
To level it I placed one jack right under the downward pointing tow eye and let the jack support the weight of the car. I kept well away from anywhere under the car during this part of the procedure.
Then I used another jack and a piece of strong timber as a spacer, to push the eye back out towards the side of the car. As the metal went back into the correct position the weight of the car straightened out the bent eye and made it horizontal again to match the good one.
Then it was just a matter of refitting the rear stone tray and rear bumper bar.
The idea of using the chain and a jack came from a friendly panel beating customer who explained how to do the job. It turned out that he was right.
Cheers....George.
:citplak:
Hi Froggies.
When the truckies delivered the CX to me in Melbourne, I found evidence that the car had rolled backwards at some stage and been halted by hitting something very solid with the passenger side tow eye. It was possibly a gutter or a rock, because the tow eye metal is very heavy gauge and really hard to bend. I took some photos to show what it should look like compared to how it was.
I managed to straighten it out though. The first step was to remove the rear bumper bar. Then the rear stone tray came off so I could straighten that, and I found that it also required a rivet to replace a spot weld.
By using a short length of chain , two bolts, a piece of redgum plate and a car jack I was able to pull the eye back up to it's approximate normal position.
Actually I took it a little past its normal position towards the centre line of the car. The job was half done at this point with no need to heat the metal support. However, the eye was still pointing downward too far. It was supposed to be level like the driver side tow eye.
To level it I placed one jack right under the downward pointing tow eye and let the jack support the weight of the car. I kept well away from anywhere under the car during this part of the procedure.
Then I used another jack and a piece of strong timber as a spacer, to push the eye back out towards the side of the car. As the metal went back into the correct position the weight of the car straightened out the bent eye and made it horizontal again to match the good one.
Then it was just a matter of refitting the rear stone tray and rear bumper bar.
The idea of using the chain and a jack came from a friendly panel beating customer who explained how to do the job. It turned out that he was right.
Cheers....George.
:citplak:
