Bonnet panel gap help

PostPost by: collins_dan » Mon Aug 14, 2017 6:24 pm

Take your bonnet off and post a good picture of the hinges. They appear to have been partially removed. Since your bonnet is nicely painted, you may be able to get a cheap bonnet that has proper hinges on it and just have those fiberglassed onto your bonnet and painted close enough. Dan
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PostPost by: jimj » Mon Aug 14, 2017 9:47 pm

It looks, perhaps deceptively, as if the bonnet (hood) was such a hopeless fit that someone lifted the front by inserting those threaded stops and put up with the fact that the whole thing was a bit too short. Either the bonnet is too small or the engine bay aperture too large. Either way, there`s quite a bit of fibreglassing work to make it fit and there`s no easy fix. The best hope is that a new bonnet will fit and you can just replace those threaded stop things with the nylon bolts that the skid plate should slide on.
Good advice is to borrow, or measure, a bonnet and see.
Jim
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PostPost by: Craven » Mon Aug 14, 2017 10:17 pm

Hi,
Very slight bend over cam cover my bonnet aperture measures 34 ? inches, car shell 1966 S3 DHC has no repairs.
Perhaps others could add a few more for an average.
Ron.
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PostPost by: thegman » Tue Aug 15, 2017 1:21 pm

Thanks to all of you. Below are some more pics.

One thing I need to fix is the mounting bracket for the left bonnet hinge area has come loose as fibreglass has become damaged and the screw loose.

I have a feeling the metal screws have been put there to protect the radiator. They don't protrude vertically any higher that the top of the bonnet support. My radiator is definitely wider than all the pictures I have seen. Car was built for track use - perhaps that's why it's bigger? I have seen in some photos there appears to be some sort of padding in the radiator area - does anybody else have this?

In terms of the bonnet itself. The flanges/hinges look intact, but for some reason somebody has attached an additional skid plate on top of the original skid plate on one side. Tthe original skid plates are there but have been painted over and so difficult to see. No idea why - and need to make a more thorough comparison vs pictures.

Think the bonnet is probably slightly smaller than average (or the aperture bigger) but the look is made worse by the skid plates which are pushing the bonnet back. Tempted to just remove everything and start again but this may be a winter job!

Thanks for all your help
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PostPost by: alan.barker » Tue Aug 15, 2017 3:45 pm

I would say the long screws were added to stop the bonnet being opened too much, which can damage the paint.
When you open the bonnet to show someone the engine they always try to open it more :shock:
Alan
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PostPost by: jimj » Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:08 pm

No, Alan, that wouldn`t work. Looking at the scratch marks on the skid plates, maybe they`re there to hold the (too small) bonnet forward when closed so the front tongue locates under the bodywork. If so it`s all a bit rubbish, a better bodge would be to extend the tongue by building it up with fibreglass. Just try removing those bolts and see how everything fits.
The sponge glued to the underside of bonnets is to encourage air through the radiator rather than over it.
Jim
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