Smiley Grin

I had this photo on my Home page for awhile and couldn't help always noticing the crooked grin.  See it?
On closer inspection, it was obvious that 'grounding' had pushed up the trim and bent stuff.  I assumed that fixing this would be a major job until I pointed the grin out to Elliott Davies.  "Easy to fix", he said.  "OK then, let's do it now", said I.  So we did.

When you ground, the bottom of the luggage compartment hits the ground but it is unlikely that this whole section will be pushed up.  What happens is that a 2cm flange coming off forwards and horizontally off the compartment is bent up.  The grill trim is attached to this flange.  Remove the trim, bend the flange back down, refit and all is smiley again.

To get to the flange, jack or ramp the front of the car for more room to move and remove the central and two front-side pieces of black undertray.  All just screwed on.

You will then see the flange all bent upwards as shown here.  See how the clips to take the trim screws are bent up and are not horizontal.

Elliott and I just used a pair of pliers to bend the flange down along its length.  Voila!  See how the flange is now pointing forward horizontally.  Screw the three pieces on undertray back on.

And a before and after comparison.  Mine was not to bad, but since I have been looking I have seen some grins in need of major dental work.

 

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