Bonnet

Rather than work on the car yesterday I decided to drive my youngest daughter and her friends to Manchester in order to see a One Direction concert. 3 hours of listening to 1D in the car; 1 hour of chaperoning them into and out of the MEN Arena in the company of many thousands of very excited, squealing teenage girls; 5 hours of hanging around Arndale shopping centre..... but she enjoyed it - and that's what matters.

So today a few hours in the garage. The first task was to position the bonnet correctly and mount the bonnet catches. The mounting of the catches was straight forward (although the 4mm rivets are quite difficult to pop with a standard rivet gun). The difficulty I had was getting the bonnet to fit properly over the scuttle and nose. I eventually managed to get it straight and square but there is a gap between bonnet and body panels on both sides. I will source some neoprene and bonnet locating studs to finish the installation (see future post).

 
With the bonnet located, I could work out where the hole for the manifold needed to be and it's shape. The photo on the right shows a paper template I created to find a suitable size and shape. This one is the third or forth I made before I was happy. 

I then transferred the template to the bonnet and got to work with the dremel. I must admit to a moment of dread half way through the cutting process when I wondered if I had the template the right way around. But not to worry.

I was amazed once the bonnet was replaced, just how aggressive the car looks now with the manifold emerging from the side.