The bar going across the rear of my ELF was slowly bending. I repaired it May 2017. I don't know yet how well the repair will work. I'll try to update this page if anything goes wrong related to the repair. This is what it looked like before the repair (click on image to see full size):  After the repair it looks like this (click on image to see full size):  To do the repair I first removed the part from the ELF. This is a picture of the bent part after I removed it:  Steps to remove: - drill out the 5 rivets attaching the carbon fiber panel to the horizontal bar. - unscrew the hex bolts holding the side body panels to the horizontal bar. - drill out the 4 rivets inside of the trunk attaching the part to the rear wheel cage - drill out the 2 rivets for the two cable guides attached to the rear bar - cut the zip tie holding a loop of cable to the part - cut a small bridge of the coroplast (corrugated plastic) inside of the trunk After thinking through several options. I came up with a pretty simple repair. I would bend back the rear bar and reinforce by welding on a piece of angle aluminum. Here is the picture of some left over angle aluminum. I used 1 inch wide with a 1/4" thickness:  I cut it with a hacksaw to be slightly shorter than the rear bar. I thought it would be best if it didn't overlap the holes at the end of the bar. These holes are for the cams which the hex bolts screw into. I was worried the cams wouldn't fit through the thicker aluminum. If I do this again I would cut the angle aluminum to the same length as the bar, and drill out the holes for the cams. I took the part and the angle aluminum piece to a local welding shop. They bent the rear bar back to be straight and tack welded the angle aluminum to the part. Note the angle should cover the top and inside (trunk side) of the rear bar. The welding cost $50. Some notes: you should prep the rear bar by sanding the parts that will be welded. Also in my case the welder tacked the ends of the angle bar not just the long edges. I don't think tacking the ends is helpful. It looks like it weakens the bar and I don't think it will help much to prevent bending. After it was welded, I filed and sanded the welds to make the top smooth and so no rough edges would catch on items going in the trunk. I used 120, 200, and 400 grit sand paper. Here is a picture of the part after it was welded and sanded:  Now that the bar was thicker the the thumb screws used to hold the rear window in place were not long enough. I did not find longer screws of the same kind so I needed to find an alternative. I found something called a 'bar knob' at a local Ace hardware. They were in the section where they sell loose screws, nuts, and bolts. These knobs were for 1/4" bolts, so I got some 1 1/2" long stainless steel bolts. I was not able to fit a washer in and still turn the knob without unscrewing it. The knobs are looser than the originals, so I'll have to see if they hold the rear window closed during bumpy drives. Before re-installing the part the various holes should be re-drilled. There are holes for the cable guides. And the holes for the knobs that hold the rear window. The holes for the trunk latch. Re-installing the part took me 3 tries. The first time the part seemed to be too tight between the side body panels. After jamming it i there I decided it was putting too much stress on they body panels. So I removed the two washers that were on the hex bolts. Only time will tell if that was the right choice. The next time I found out that I did not put the zip tie on correctly because it sticking out too much and preventing me from attaching the carbon fiber panel correctly. Here is the correctly installed zip tie:   I've had problems with rivets breaking where this part is attached to the rear wheel cage. So I replaced the rivets with stainless steel bolts and lock nuts. I've had problems with my trunk staying closed since I first got my ELF. I'm still experimenting with options for this latch to improve things. Conclusion: The bar is straight and strong now. However there seems to be a lot of downward pressure on the ends of the bar where the body panels attach. This might cause cracking on the body panels. Perhaps the body panels warp to fit the bent bar and now they will warp back. Or perhaps it would be best to try to adjust everything to fit the current shape of the body panels. |
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