Bonnet Flew Off!

[Snapperpaul]

On the way home from work Thursday gave it some beans down the windy lane and the rubber bonnet clips let go , bonnet hanging on by 1 front right clip, i hit the anchors to try and stop running over the bonnet with the front right.

Left 35 foot of twin rubber skid marks and stopped in a cloud of tyre smoke, quite impressive really.

 

Re fitted the bonnet that has a little bit of scuffing on the rear right lower edge and has worn the edge trim, used some tank tape and took car back to the barn at slower speed.

 

Transpires that when i cured the starting problem by fitting a spare battery it was a little higher and longer than the original forcing the bonnet out and up by just enough to strain the left rear rubber clip, car left out in the sun all day and it could not hold.

 

I suppose i am lucky as the damage is slight but i will need some checker tape to cover the scuffs and will be fitting Dzus clips as well as re orientating the battery.

[agent_zed]

Glad you are ok and didn't do too much damage. Ive been thinking of how to cure this problem on mine as ive also got a bonnet clipped on with 4 of the rubber catches.

 

What iam thinking at the moment is in the centre of the bonnet at the front adding a couple of inch piece of metal that extends under the nose cone. I can then put some sort of catch under there which i can work off the original sierra column cable pull. Hopefully then i can just hook that bit under as i put the bonnet on. If the front catches fail it is then held in the centre and may flap but won't come off.

 

You've given me new reason to get on and do it.

 

hope you get it all back sorted soon.

[speedtripledan]

Having also been a victim of lifting bonnets i now have 4 x rubber up and overs with two pins at the back just to make triple double sure. i,ve also been thinking about a red dash light off micro switches attached to the clips some how .

[Guest peter2b2002]

this is what I use for extra safety over the bonnet

peter2b

[Guest Colin]

What I did was to first drill a 11mm hole in the centre of a piece of 40x40x80mm angle welded it to the centre of chasis, hole on the top just so that it touched the underside of the nose cone, marked where the hole touched on nose ,drilled a 10mm hole through bottom edge of nose. on the inside of nose i then riveted a piece of 100 x 25x 5 plate with an 11 mm hole drilled in centre, got a long 8mm bolt cut the thread off so that you just have the long shank left, pushed it through holes from inside and then welded head of nut to plate, then marked up wher bolt sticks through on underside of angle and then drilled a 5 mm hole through and to secure it all used a R clip so it all is nice and tight and it does not even rattle and dead easy to pull out and re fit. the front edge of the bolt needs to be tappered so that it will go in with ease when bonnet is lowered and lifted, a bit long winded but thought it might help. I also have the rubber clips fitted on each side

Colin