Bonnet Catch

[Guest gavin.woodbutcher]

Hi all,

New to this lark so please bear with me.

I am having problems with snapping bonnet catches (the over centre type from woolies) on my Exmo, to the point where all 4 went in one go and the bonnet ended up in the road behind me.

1) If I change to 4 "flexi" rubber catches, will these be better?

2) Are there any old fashioned straps on the market to try and creat a fail safe?

Thanks in advance

Gavin

[miikae]

I used the old type Protex SS ones which can be bought direct from Protex via there web shop plus locking clips ( SS sealing pins), they have many types to choose from .

 

http://www.protex.com/

http://www.protex.com/product/show/name/27-1900

 

Mike

[speedtripledan]

I have 4 rubber over centers on mine and two bonnet pins like you i lost a bonnet and decided to go overkill

 

Dan

[Guest Colin]

Gavin

I was a bit concerned about my bonnet flying off as it is the alligator type, so what i did was to fit side clamps or catches on either side, then on the bottom front edge of the nose cone I riveted two strips of stainless steel 6" x 2" x1/4" lengthways one on the top inside the other below on outside having drilled a 10 mm hole through in the centre of both pieces and nose cone btm edge, I then got a long 10mm bolt cut the threads off leaving a shoulder of around 20mm on ,ground a point on with one flat side, put the bolt through the hole on the inside of cone and then tack welded it on, then I welded a piece of 2"x2" angle to centre of chassis x member, lowered the bonnet down marked up on the angle as to where the bolt was going to touch ,drilled 11m hole in angle so bolt went through then drilled 5 mm hole in btm of bolt so it was tight up against the angle and to fasten it down used an R clip, it works well and easy to use, most of this work can be done before fitting just tried to explain how it is done.

Hope you can understand it all.

 

Colin

[Guest gavin.woodbutcher]

Thanks for replys guys, these have given me some food for thought.

[Longboarder]

Over centre catches have to be set up well to be reliable. If in doubt drill the front two and fit an R clip and they will be fine. No need to change them.

Carbuilder solutions have one here but it won't let me copy the picture. You could modify along those lines.

 

Nigel

[fry61]

CBS over centre catch as shown is a solution ;but only after IVA. Our solution was to drill a 20mm hole in the S/steel bonnet,then a 5mm hole down through the return lip of the bonnet & on through the chassis tube;tap the chassis M6; drill out the lip to 6.5mm & secure bonnet to chassis rail with a M6 cap head set screw & speading washer. when locked tight fit 20mm blank grommet to blind hole in side. Has the added advantage of being able to close shut line between bonnet & side panel as much or little as you like without compromising security. Hope this helps.

[Guest peter2b2002]

Here's one I made for my 2b + 2 rubber catches

peter2b

[Guest Dan_Beeston]

After hearing the horror stories about the alligator bonnet I fitted the two rubber catches and the Sierra catch when building mine.

 

I picked the car up a few weeks ago from a session on the rollers & took it for a 70mph spin, got home & found out none of the three catches were fastened!