Fitting the bonnet Pt 2.

The old man was back from holiday so I roped him into helping with the bonnet. I have learned a few things since last working on this which I recommend any other builders take into account.

AK advise you to create a small bracket for the bonnet locks to locate into. I talked to them and they confirmed that the S&J bonnet catches don't actually reach under the lip of the body and therefore the bracket has to stick out.

The more I looked at this the more I believed this was totally unacceptable and surmounted to shoddy engineering.

I spoke to S&J who advised that they produce a longer Cam/bonnet catch (its over an inch longer) and strangely Anthony at absolute horsepower is the only place that uses.

Newsflash......that probably because no-one else gets told about them....!

They allowed me to return my shorter catches and sent me the longer ones. These are so much better as the catch fits right under the lip of the body which allows the bracket to fit up against the lip and not stick out.

This is so much better and now looks the part (and seems to secure the bonnet much better).

Fitting the gas struts first requires drilling the wing about an inch in front of the washer bottle cross member to the wing. Funnily enough I couldn't fit the drill into this none existent space without taking off the bottle so I decided to drill the hole 1.75 inches in front. 2 holes and M6 bolts and its fitted in place. You just have to make sure it is secure, right up to the rain valley.

The instructions tell you to drill through the rain gulley to add a bolt here too which I did.

There is one thing the instructions don't tell you to do .... surprise, surprise...

The gas struts are immovable when you first open them so you need to turn the grub screw at the top to let a little gas out. Be careful here as it comes out fast so just do a little at a time.

The strut will push in to about 10-11 inches long.

Mark the body 11 inches up from where the bracket is located and transfer this to the bonnet then just add the bonnet bracket by drilling and attaching with rivets.

Attach one of struts and then release the gas until you can just close the bonnet and it holds itself up (just), then add just the second strut and do the same. When you add both together it will hold itself up. I found that I still had to let a little more gas out to reduce the movement on the body as they were a little stiff when added together.

I'm very pleased that I can now lift the bonnet without my makeshift wooden bonnet strut :-)