Beast Hood or Bonnet
Beasthood is rather like fatherhood..... testing at times!
Take a deep breath, the BEAST does not always play nice!
The bonnet is now in full undercoat and the positioning and testing can begin. Initially the bonnet had no chance of fitting with many problems to solve. The carb air intake cut out and DI cassette cut out helped but still the hood was to high. After much head scratching (and paint scratching) the discovery that the main body rail should mount under the floor. Once the body is positioned correctly the hood fell into place. After each of the nose wings were trimmed to match the front splitter the bonnet could close correctly. A major improvement!
Bonnet Closed.
Then with further modifications to the holes in the top of the bonnet the front nose finally aligned and lowered into position. Although this whole process is simple to describe the actual voyage of discover took an incredible amount of time and effort.
The Bonnet Nose a Nice Sug Fit.
The process of getting to what you see above will now be described in all its gory detail. Those of a nervous disposition are advised to skip to the lighter side of the beast......
Firstly the Carb air intake and DI unit clearance holes need to be inserted. These will later be filled with tear drop hood bumps. But to get the hood anywhere near fitting the holes are required first.
Carb Air Intake Hole.
DI Cassette Hole.
The next item is to raise and lower the hood ready for inspection. This requires fixing at the front with a hinge that will not impinge on the nose of the car. This can be overcome with the use of a sliding bonnet hinge.
Bonnet Hinge Closed. Bonnet Hinge Open.
The image above shows the hinge in it's closed position but still forward. The bolt on the left of the slider (lower slotted part) is only there to keep the sliding brackets square during assembly. When the slider bracket is actually fitted to the front splitter the top part of the hinge will slide back into the space occupied by the alignment bolt. The extensions slots, on the right of the image, actually fit into the nose space of the bonnet when the hinge is closed and slid fully back.
In the open position the top part of the hinge swings forward while the sliding part also moves forward into the extension slots. In this way the bonnet can open and move forward to avoid any bodywork collisions. Again the alignment bolt at the bottom of the picture will be removed when the hinge is in use.
The main issue with the hinge arrangement will be the bolt holding the top part of the hinge to the slide mechanism. This bolt must act as a pin and not tighten completely so that the bonnet can open and slide backward and forward. If a bolt is used that tightens at the bottom of the blind thread in the bonnet hinge, the thread will wear quickly and allow movement in the hinge that will eventually cause damage to allow the bolt to undo. Also the bolt must be the correct size so that it does not bind in the slot during repeated use, this is also an issue with the bolt head and hinge face.
The true answer to this problem is, like many bolted mobile mechanisms, is a shank and washer arrangement. The shank length is crucial to the fastening and will prevent the bolt from being damaged. The washes allow the easy movement of the sliding mechanism without causing the bolt to take any turning force, preventing the bolt from tightening or loosening.
Hinge Pin Bolt.
The hinge pin bolt shank tightens firmly into the thread of the bonnet hinge. The shank itself is long enough to make sure that the slide bracket is not clamped and that the washers either side are lose. the shank is also turned down enough to allow it to slide freely within the slide bracket slot. This pin arrangement will allow a robust and long term solution sliding hinge pin.
The bonnet saga continues, this has become a major head ache. Of all the problems face to date the hood has become the most time consuming of them all. Alignment, hinge, centralising and getting the nose cone to fit correctly are all devouring masses of time and effort.
Beast Hood the saga continues Click Here