1995 a6 avant replacing front wings

[locostseven]

Hi all
I have just bought an a6 avant c4 1995 and the front two wings are both damaged with irrepairable rust. I need to change them. They appear to be bolt on. Does anyone know if this is the case and the method to remove them and replace. I was going to get two new wings painted off the car and bolt them back on but have never tackled this job before.
Cheers.
Carl.

[Ray@dds]

Would be interested too.We have A6 2ltr 1995 saloon with fantastic bodywork for age except for front wings .Not bad on drivers side [bit of small bubbling] but a bit worse on passengers.looks like a 3-4 year old car apart from this.

Any advice would be greatly received.

Ray

[locostseven]

Ray

Mines the same, the front wings on both side are rotten and dropping to bits at the top of the arches, literally 12" long and 2" into the arch. I have bought two wings off ebay and should be picking them up this weekend. So if there are no replies I will get on with it blind and post the results and process when I'm finished

Carl.

[locostseven]

Finally made a start on it this weekend after getting locking wheel nuts removed by kwickfit (reasonable £15) as they were stuck solid.

Main problem was getting bumper off as Haynes manual says remove bumper bolts then unclip sides of bumper. Unclipping the sides of bumper is a nightmare as you cannot see the clips and they are ultra heavy duty. This is how I did it:

1. Jack front of car up and put on axle stands.
2. Remove front wheels
3. Remove wheel arch liners (lots of plastic fasteners, screws and bolts but fairly easy to find
4. Remove engine undertray (three quarter turn screws at back of engine and slide back
5. Remove front bumper side grills and then remove two bumper bolts (allen screw heads)
6. Get a torch and if you prize the front bumper sides away from the wheel arches you will see the bottom of the clip. It clips onto the wing with a downward facing lug at the bottom and an upward facing lug at the top. This is heavy duty abs plastic like your bumper is made of and there is no way you will get the bumper off by just pulling on the bumper.
7. Get a thick strong big flat bladed screwdriver and insert it in the bottom of the clip between the bumper slot and wing mounted clip. The screwdriver will be pointing 45 degrees downwards towrds the front of the car. Then shove the screwdriver in while pulling the handle down so releasing the clip from the bumper.
8. Once the bottom clip is removed the top on will just pull out by lifting the bumper up.
9. You can then pull bumper forward and off, just remember to remove outside temperature sensor from behind bumper.

The above procedure took me about two hours to work out. But replacing the bumper should be a simple line up and thumpn the outside of the bumper and the clips should easily relocate.

After the above performance removing the old wings was quite simple. I have taken the drivers side off so far. Just a case of going round removing all the bolts and screws. Couple of points on the drivers side. The point where it attaches to the door pillar you have to remove what I think is some part of the aircon system from behind the wing and a plastic blanking palta to get to the bolts. also to get to the bottom bolts there is a black trim piece that needs sliding forward to unclip.

So thats where I am at the moment. Drivers side wing removed and new wing temporarily offerd up and fit doesn't look too bad but need to fiddle with it and get it undercoated.

Hope to get on with other wing this week if weather holds off.

Carl.

[locostseven]

Finished!!

After I got the bumper off the other wing removal and refit was quite simple, just methodically removing all nuts and bolts and then putting new wings on. Now I know how everything fits I would say any competent DIY'er could do the same. I sprayed all the edges with primer top coat and lacquer before I puteverything back and it looks pretty good, ready for paint on Thursday. All together with wings and paint off ebay and a friendly local sprayer it has cost about £230, If I had had the confidence I could have sprayed the wings myself and it would have saved me £100. So all in all a relatively cheap and satisfying job.

Just need to sort out my electrical problems now!!

Carl.