Heatwave

About the two little 6" x 2" spring-loaded flaps/panels on the sundeck of our cars ... the little panels some people have lost when the plastic encasing the springs breaks: is there a consensus as to how best to secure them before they break and fly away?

I just checked the two panels on my car this morning: they appear to be in good nick and show no obvious signs of imminent failure. But the car is a full 10 years old. Plastics get brittle. If there's a reasonably good prophylactic solution for the problem that hasn't occurred, I'd like to find out about it.

Cheers.

latemodel21

When my flaps fell off, they fell in the trunk (perhaps I got lucky). You raise a great question. I would think you could add a tether to each. 2 pieces of fishing line (or light cord of some kind) with a knot in each end secured with 2 blobs of epoxy should do it.

Cheers,
Chris

carguyshu

mine are about to come off. What did you do to secure them back on? It appears one of the three attachment points has partially broken off on each of mine.

latemodel21

this is how I fixed mine a few years back (still working)
https://mbworld.org/forums/sl-class-...ml#post5812482

but I have seen better/easier solutions come along since.

I would do a search of 230-690-09-41 (part number for panel) and look at more recent threads.

Cheers,
Chris

kbob999

Here is a preventative strike I did to my roof flaps:
https://mbworld.org/forums/sl-class-...ml#post6642412

Still holding up well, and works on the door glovebox tops too!

Rudeney

I used Gorilla brand black fabric "duct" tape on mine. The left hinge broke and the spring was lost. The tape fixed the hinge and a random spare spring I had in the garage was rigged to work in place of the lost one. I proactively put tape on the right hinge.

carguyshu

are you using the tape to act as the actual hinge? I'm having a hard time figuring out how duct tape would work otherwise to fix this.

Rudeney

The front end of my hinge is still intact. I put tape on the back. But even if the front were broken, I'd just need another strip there.

Heatwave

I was a PE major ... takes me longer to understand stuff. Are y'all saying put a strip of Gorilla tape maybe in front of the hinge and another behind the hinge, with the ends of each attached to the flap and to the outboard panel piece to which the flaps are hinged? Or are you putting tape directly over the hinge? Or does it matter? So long as there's enough flexion there for the hinge to move freely ... does it matter?

And ... thanks to all who have responded on this thread. I really learn a lot from you guys. Have a great weekend.

Rudeney

Well, a picture is worth...

Heatwave

Excellent picture, Rodney. Says it all. Many many thanks. I'm going to try attaching three strips of Gorilla tape on the flap, fore, aft, and amidships (directly over the spring). And hope for the best.

Rudeney

You're welcome! Yeah, sometimes it just take a picture, and I know I tend to get too lazy to take and post one.

IIRC, the spring I used came from the auto-choke lever of an old lawn tool carburetor. I could not find a suitable spring to put back into the hinge, so I was able to wedge this on into the seam on the flap, and then hook it up under the panel. I removed the whole panel to make this work easier, but you can get the tape in place without doing that.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Duct tape. Black, if you like.