Look what I did!!! The ultimate Whale Tail Rubber stud replacement.
 

Well I finally finished it over months of planning. Actually, I just took my sweet time, thinking out the project. Well anyway my story starts at when I bought a turbo tail off ebay for a really good price, $400 including the decklid. The slight catch was that the rubber needed to be fixed. I didnt know exactly what needed fixing until I saw this.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114987806.jpg

The studs were completley gone on both sides of the rubber. The back section had all of its stud present and in good condition, so no worries about those. The PO had attached the rubber to the tail by means of 3" long drywall screws randomly drilled into the sides and finished off with epoxy to glue the rubber to the body.

It looked like CRAP! So my mission was to fix this. I looked through the Pelican boards and found nothing but the drywall screw method. Later I ended talking to Kevin at Automotive Innovations about the situation, he told me to cut into the rubber and look for the support rod that runs the length of the rubber and fab some studs to attach to them. I decide to do this and to my demise I cant find this rod thingy. Infact all I found was RUST!!! So I cut more and find out that this type of rubber was probably an early piece and was designed slightly different.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114988501.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114988560.jpg

So my assumption was that what ever was inside this rubber, COMPLETLEY rusted away. It was pretty ugly.

And then I make a discovery was digging through the mess. There is a separate center section of the rubber that is shaped like a “U”.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114990657.jpg

I got around to cleaning the rust off the rubber, man that is a lot of work to do. Rust sucks. So I got it quite clean and nice looking. The picture just shows it kind of clean, but I got it all.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114990706.jpg

I devised up a special bracket that would fit back into the rubber. I took some measurements for the studs and holes that they fit into. I went out and bought 6mm by 3” bolts, cut the heads off and grinded down to size. I then had a neighbor weld them onto the bracket. They came out great. But stupid me, I finished the project and forgot to take pictures of the brackets, so I drew them out. This is exactly what they looked like. It is square pipe cut length wise in half with studs welded on the ends.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991261.jpg

So the ultimate plan was to glue the whole thing back in. The problem is, for this application I needed a glue that can withstand a lot of abuse, because it is part of the spoiler. So it had to be really strong, it had to flex a bit, and contact to rubber really well. I got some advise from several pelicans on what to choose. I took a trip to the local auto paint store and the guy at the counter said use panel bonding glue, he said that should work plenty fine for the application.

Now getting to the important part, I started with one side of the tail. I filled the entire cavity with glue, and put glue all over the back and sides of the bracket. I smushed the whole assembly back into place and touched up some areas I missed. I took some masking tape to hold it into place, followed by C clamps to keep it really tight. I let it dry and repeated for the other side. They came out great, super solid. I outdid myself this time. Oh for those who were wondering, that tail in the background is some cheap repo tail, not the one I am using. But over all a great project and worth the time doing it. I haven’t quite gotten to the test phase of actually using it, but I pretty confident. That glue is Really strong, I cant separate the pieces even if I tried.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991479.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991531.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991545.jpg

As you can see, it’s a good fit, I had to file the holes in the tail to make them a bit bigger for imperfections in stud placement. I’m in the process of painting the tail, so very soon It will be all done.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991629.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991641.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991664.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991674.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1114991691.jpg

Great job !!!!!!!!

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Three cheers! I would have quit after the first slice. Great work!

WOW!

Excellent job and good save!

JoeA

the talent on this board is amazing http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gif

I agree with you completely when you say you outdid yourself. That's a rockin good job.
Looks great.

I would have bought a new one.

Excellent Post and good work.
 

Couldn't have come at a better time for me. Mine is separating and I could see the rust but didn't know how it was assembled. I was ready to order a new rubber lip this week but after your post, I may try this repair first. Nothing to lose.

I notice on mine that each stud just has a nut and washer on the inside which means all the support is around the hole. Mine have a few cracks in the fiberglass in this area that will need to be repaired as well. I think I'll try all stainless steel parts to limit rust and add a flat plate inside the fiberglass tail to distribute the pressure of the nut rather than focusing all of it on such a small area.

I don't have access to a welder, do you think drilling a bracket then attaching studs with bolts on the backside would also work?
Also, what are you using for your mesh screen?

Mine has lasted 21 years but here's where it separating. Same place on both sides. Back side is still tight.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1115000294.jpg

Excellent effort and write up Beau. Looks like you turned that POS into a Porsche worthy part again. Congrats !!

Very nice work man.:)

Absolutely amazing! You did an incredible job. Nice to see quality repairs getting done on something most of us would think about throwing away. I think we will all think twice now before we pitch something old. :) :) :)

I too am amazed at all the talent on this forum!

Nice job man!!!!!!!!!!!

.................................................. .C;)

Great job you have done there. Those turbo rubbers are getting real expensive to buy new. There use to be a company making aftermarket turbo tail rubber but haven't seen them for a few years.

Wow, I am amazed at the amount people congradulating me. Now I feel really special. As for autobanrun, you should try to have the studs on the bracket welded, by anyone with any welding skill at all. It's an easy job, and it will fit better in the rubber, due to it being a tight space. You dont want any bulk in there or it will show on the outside. You can kind of see where the studs are on mine, there is a little bulge on the top. Also make sure you know how the inside of your rubber is setup. From what I am told, there are rubber lips with different setups on the inside. I think mine is the early style. Not sure about that but you want to just slice open a tiny section to see exactly what you are dealing with and then tear it apart. As for the screen mesh, I think I'm going to try without it for a while and see if I like it or not. But I think you can pick up that stuff at Home Depot, It's really cheap.

First, congratulations on a fine job,the hardest part would be deciding to tackle it initially.
When I bought my 76 it had a turbo tail with no screen,and it sucked in everything but cats and dogs! Well, lots of leaves ,anyway. I took it off as I felt that the narrow body didnt suit the big tail .

Great work! Another example of why I tell people about the amazing depth of talent and ingenuity on this board.
Thanks for sharing.
Les

You gave that tail a second chance!