Spats and rusty screws

[tforturton]

The short spats on my Caravelle wheelaeches were all been removed before I got it, and I still have them, but every single fixing screw is rusted or snapped off, inside the spats themselves. Is it easier to buy a new set, or is there some magic way of getting these out without doing any damage?

[jed the spread]

I took the screws off mine and stuck them on with Sikaflex

jed

[syncropaddy]

I dont think you can buy these spats any more. They come up on E Bay every now and then. Easiest way is to grind away the broken stud(s) re drill holes and use self tappers in conjunction with something like Sikaflex.

You might be lucky and find a few new ones on German E Bay

[xriss]

rears still avalible baxter does them fronts not so

[Drytooler]

http://busman.be/syncro%20outside.html

not cheap..

[tforturton]

Not cheap at all - hence why I want to get the screws out of mine without breaking them!

[hotpod]

from memory, the original ones are studs attached to 20 or 30 x 5mm (ish) piece of flat and set into the rubber of the spat. i cut and ground the old ones out and cleaned out the holes and made good undercuts with a drill or die grinder and welded some stainless 6mm bolts to similar bits of flat plate and glued them in with sikaflex. Hopefully they will now always come off when i ask them to and i wont need to be doing the job again.

i tacked them in place with araldite rapid till i had them lining up properly before filling the cavities up with sikaflex.
its not a tricky job, but well worth it. especially as replacements for mine are 1100 euros!
( i have just checked the busman link )

[Mickyfin]

Great tip there, thanks for that as I wish to remove mine, and renew the studs however, my 5mm nuts retaining them will not budge, so may have to break the nut off, and then do what you did

[hotpod]

most of mine just broke off. when they get to that stage i think its pointless to try to save the studs as you will only have the same problem next time. just break em off. sometimes they break easiest by trying to tighten them up.

[Mickyfin]

Didn't think of that, will give that a go, cheers.

[syncropaddy]

http://busman.be/syncro%20outside.html

not cheap..

Copies and not made from rubber so as soon as you touch something they wont bend like the real item. Not sure what Baxter's ones are like but his price is good compared to those NOS that sometimes appear on E Bay

[Mickyfin]

Those fiberglass one's on busmen site state the same type for front and rears. The OEM ones are different, the fronts being slightly more flared out than the rears. Well thats how they look on my stock Syncro.

[syncropaddy]

VW show 4 different part numbers in all

[tforturton]

from memory, the original ones are studs attached to 20 or 30 x 5mm (ish) piece of flat and set into the rubber of the spat.

Good thing I didn't try to rip them out with a pair of pliers then. I can see I'm going to have think hard about this.

[Mickyfin]

VW show 4 different part numbers in all

Cheers for that as if confirms my previous post