Soft Spoiler removal

[lawrencedesigns]

Has anyone had any experience completely removing the soft rear spoiler on the 84085 Spyders?
My son has the car for a couple of weeks, so I can't just go out and take a look. But I am wondering if I can just remove the old one, sand, and paint.
I am assuming the trunk lid is the same for virtually all of the Spyders, so it should work.
What do you all think?

Keeth Lawrence
84 spyder

[John M]

Hey Keeth:

The rear foam spoiler is both glued and bolted on through the trunk lid. So to remove the spoiler completely, you will have to soak the bolts with PB Blaster or the like so that you don't break them off when you try to take the nuts off. Usually a rusted mess. Then take a plastic trowl like you spread wall paper or fishing line and slowly seperate the foam spoiler from the trunk lid.

All the trunk lids are not the same. So if considering a new one, get one from the same era. Some had the trunk lights on the bottom side of the trunk lid. Some didn't.

If you are looking to do away with the foam tail, you will have to fill all the attachment holes as well prior to paint work.

On a side note, those foam spoilers can be returned to a very nice condition. I refurbished one by applying several coats of black fabric and vinyl paint.

Best Regards,
John M

[bill_bain]

The Alfa shop manual indicates that teh best way to remove the ducktail is to remove the nuts from the studs and then use a piece of monofilament fishing line strung between two dowels as a "saw" to cut through the glue. The monofilament has teh virtue of not scratching the paint.

I haven't tried it but it makes sense to me!