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Old 12-26-2014, 10:34 PM   #219 (permalink)
christofoo
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Salt Lake City
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00C - '00 Toyota Corolla
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Damage and repair of the AHB (Aero Hitch Box)

I had a bad feeling about letting my wife use the car and AHB without me around. In hindsight, I tried to train her on the latch, but didn't put any emphasis on how unfreindly it was. It was possible to get the feeling it was engaged, when it wasn't. So I'm sure it's not really her fault.

In any case, she thinks she was going about 30 MPH when it flipped up and hurt itself. The lid didn't detach, but it bent up the sheet metal in the aft and tore out a number of rivets.



Snipped out the damaged sheet.


Healed it with a new sheet.


And redid the hinges. I hated the piano hinge.


(The hinge actually feeds through the sheet metal's crease, so it's aesthetically pleasing without a big sacrifice in stiffness. But I still sealed it up around the hinge. I liked the way this turned out, but it would still damage itself if it flips up again, most likely. Actually, maybe if I put a foam pad in the right place to absorb the shock, I might be able to engineer it to survive a blow over.)


If I was smart I would make sure to add a secondary latch before I use this too many more times... though the lid actually fits better now, so the latch is less error prone.
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