How to mount this bonnet/hood?

[RedTwo]

3 years and I'm finally considering fitting my fancy bonnet. But I'm kinda stumped how to attach it.





It's super light, but also super thin! Normally, this style of bonnet is fixed with 'racing' hood pins in each corner but I'm not quite ready to becauseracecar /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I would like to keep the normal (hinged) operation of the bonnet and these pads were added to beef up the rear mounting points to about 20mm thick.
Any ideas on:

A) how to affix it?
B) how to get the mounting holes in the right place?

 

[H05TYL]

Assuming you don't want nuts/bolts sticking right through you will need to glass in some metal plates with drilled and tapped holes to bolt the hinges to (from the looks of things you will need a spacer between the hood and the hinge anyway, so you may as well attatch it to the hood and use it to mount the thing).

As far as getting the holes in the right place goes, either measure the distance from the edges of the stock hood and replicate on the f'glass one.

Or brush some paint quite thickly onto the hinges then sit the hood carefully in place, remove carfully and paint will have transfered to the hood giving you a guide to where the hinges (and holes therin) go.

The holes in the hinges are quite a bit larger than the bolts that go through them, so there is a reasonable margin for error.

 

[rdomeck]

Duct tape or some really shiny hood pins!!!! Seriously, you could make an aluminum plate with threaded holes and glass that in place measuring off of your stock hood. I would do a steel sheet metal plate with weld nuts on the back side, but an aluminum piece would be a little easier to make, although I know you Kiwi's can really be good at fabrication......

 

[cheekychimp]

Adam,

I know you said you don't want hood pins but do you know you can get ones like Jeremy's that are recessed so that you only see the centre oval part of these below that are flush with the surface of the hood. If done with care and a bit of time they could be almost imperceptible.




What concerns me about the methods being suggested above is not the hinge mounts but how you will secure it at the front. If you don't want any hoodpins, I am really concerned about how well a hood latch glassed in will stand up. One crack and the next time you go WOT and some air gets under your hood it will go 180 degrees on you, snap off and make pretty images in your rear view.

I have a similar hood for my project car and I deliberated over this for a while. Despite the fact that I 'think' I managed to get the molds saved by Karter, getting a replacement shipped here if I bounced one down the road wouldn't be practical. Consequently I think I'm going with 4 recessed hood pins. I'm also considering making up some racks/drilling some holes in a few walls and putting spare pins in so that when I take the hood off I can secure it off the floor to a wall etc. That way it won't fall and the edges won't get damaged etc.

Paul.

 

[H05TYL]

Good point, I'd assumed he was going to use pins at the front, but still wanted to use the hinges at the rear, rather than having a pin at each corner and having to remove the hood completely.

Aero catches are a great idea, and you can get lockable ones too (I had to resort to using a padlock through my olde fashioned pins).

Also a good idea having pins on the wall to hang it on when working on the car.

 

[turbowop]

Paul, I don't think he's against running hood pins up front. He's worried about having to use them at all four corners and losing the convenience of being able to hinge the hood up when needing to access the engine bay.

 

[cheekychimp]

Mark, I was wondering if that was what he meant. In that case I think the suggestions made so far are pretty much spot on. In fact perhaps I should consider doing something along the same lines. It might be a lot easier actually.

 

[RedTwo]

Sorry, yes I have lockable Aerocatches? for the front. It's the rear where things go funny.
I need to pack things out about 20mm. I'm considering welding 2 bolts to a plate and then sandwiching them between additional plates. These extra plates will butt up with the faces of the bolt heads to stop things moving - if I can out torque the welds /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif Maybe fibreglass the plates to the underside?