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Bonnet - Lining up


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Hi

Mu bonnet has a wider gap to the wing on one side to the other and one corner is a bit higher up than the other!  Any tips on levelling this or is it more likely its had a bump once and this is just how it is?

Richard

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There's a lot of points you can adjust and something would have to be fairly badly wrong for you not to be able to adjust it back to an acceptable position.

You can adjust:

  • Bonnet hinge where it fixes to inner wing
  • Bonnet hinge where it attaches to underside of bonnet
  • Some adjustment of the wing itself by loosening the wing bolts and repositioning - probably not necessary if your gaps are parallel
  • Height adjustment of the bonnet rubbers in the rear corners of the engine bay

It's a bit of a game but without seeing your exact current issue it's a bit of a guess. Show some pics of the gaps and the corners that are high/low.

Also be careful to look very closely at the front corners of the wing/bonnet when you are opening and closing straight after making adjustments as in some positions you can find the bonnet gets very close to touching the wing 

 

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My bonnet is touching the left side Skuttle panel about 2 inches from the corner. Bonnet to fender gaps are fine, right side bonnet to Skuttle panel is fine.

what adjustment should I try?

graham

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Graham,

you have to start aligning bonnet to scuttle, make the clearance left and right the same. Note the clearance varies along this gap, but target for 5 mm max.

When the bonnet then is ok, you align both wings to the bonnet.

Starting point is a 5 mm gap for each side. The gaps near the scuttle are fixed off course. It’s a bit of an iterative process. 
 

So with your car, when you have corrected the bonnet to scuttle gap, the wings will need to be aligned again probably. You can move the bonnet fwd by losening the 3 bolts at the front (bonnet to hinge), or by moving the hinge point a bit fwd, but both have their own effects. I would try bonnet to hinge first. And have the 2 rubber cones loose so they are not forcing the bonnet in a fixed point.
Waldi

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1 hour ago, Waldi said:

I would try bonnet to hinge first. And have the 2 rubber cones loose so they are not forcing the bonnet in a fixed point.

Might find it easier to take them out along with the spring catch and leave the two bolts that attach the hinge to the sides of the bonnet.

I also found that using two long lengths of 4mm wood slotted between the wings/bonnet gaps worked well to achieve a constant gap. As said it just takes time juggling things around until you are happy.

Happy Easter all

Andy

 

 

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If you elongate the holes on the hinges you then have lots of movement either way. It worked on a mates TR6 that had just came from the paint shop and was a worry at the time but soon solved after thinking out of the box.

Regards HarryTR5 Nutter

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Better to leave the cones in at the rear but leave them loose once youve established the correct height for the bonnet at the rear to the scuttle as they support the bonnet and make adjustment easier. Leave the outer two short ones as noted by Neil until the very end as you often have to bend the outer strap to suit once you have the bonnet in the right place.

Stuart.

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  • 1 year later...

So another bank holiday and in my wisdom I thought I would just try and adjust the way my bonnet fits. The gaps around the bonnet are not great but it was the fact that the bonnet was rubbing at the baulk end that was bugging me most and I thought yeah easy job, I've looked at the previous posts I'll just loosen the hinge to bonnet bolts pull the bonnet 5mm forward and tighten them back up. Well now my cars in bits, bonnet off, grill of, hinges off and headlamps out on the floor!! What went wrong was with the bolts loose I still couldn't get the bonnet to move so I ended up removing them completely. I then put the bonnet where I wanted it and packed with cardboard and then tried to re-insert the bolts but as you will see from the picture my hinges no where nearly lineup with the captive nuts. (the nearside is better)

If my hinges don't line up with the captive plate with my bonnet in the best position I am not sure what I am meant to do? I feel I am in best bodge land? My plan then is to drill out the hinge holes to the next size up as Harry above eludes to, to give me more play and if need be pack out the inner wing fixing as I note my hinge plate is about 10mm out of vertical where it fixes to the inner wing. Is this normal?  Can ask then please if anybody has been here before and can you see a flaw in my plan before I start please?

Also now I am this far in can the wings be moved in at the front by headlights by loosening the top bolts please? I have a 7mm gap at both sides of the bonnet to wing at the battery end but at the front I have 10mm  each side? I have measured the diagonal and I have a 6mm discrepancy but I don't know where its out or what to do about it? The gaps to the doors are good so I don't want to be chasing the gaps around the car. Any help gratefully appreciated. 

Also I note the comment about longer bolts to the hinges. Mine are all the same length apart from the short one to the side fixing. Should the hinge to bonnet fixings be different lengths?  

IMG_20210501_150640602.jpg

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If you use bolts that are too long in the hinge to bonnet fixing you risk putting a nasty upward dent in the bonnet skin.

I was told taking the headlamps out allows access to the hinge to inner wing bolts when the bonnet is closed to help establish alignment - never done it but sounds feasible.

Slotting hinge bolt holes is not unheard of.

Peter W

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My issue is that the front of the bonnet is lower than the wings on both sides by about 5mm. The side bolts are adjusted to give maximum lift at the front. Any thoughts?

Tim

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I had to elongate the three hinge holes on both sides for a start and the ones two the body. The body ones allowed me to pull the bonnet forward up to the front valance as well as up and down by around 8-10mm.You could get a bit more by grinding the front edge down by another 2-3mm.

The captive plate moves quite freely once loose give a squirt of WD40 so you are getting as much travel as possible. No need for longer bolts for me anyway.

I used the slats out of an old Venetian blind, two lengths taped to the sides of the bonnet gave me 4mm down the length to butt the wings up to. Easier to adjust everything with the grill out as I could get to all of the bolts, with a rad etc in place I it might be different.

Took most of the day before I was reasonably happy but nice when it looks well here's my effort for a bit of encouragement.

Best of luck keep fiddling!

Andy

IMG_1179.jpeg

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The method I used was to loosen the top screws apart from the one closest to the bulkhead (to keep the door gap) and the one that holds the strap to the bonnet hinge accessed through the headlight opening pull it away from the bolt or the wing won't move. The wing should then be able to move inwards you might have to slot the holes to get the screws to engage the holes in the spire clips and fit the strap last.

Andy

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Thanks Andy but after removing all the wing bolts along the top, the bracket to headlight bowl and the bumper bolt I still can't get it to move dispite the slots in the wing suggesting more movement is possible.

Richard depressed of Dunstable

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1 hour ago, Richmac said:

Thanks Andy but after removing all the wing bolts along the top, the bracket to headlight bowl and the bumper bolt I still can't get it to move dispite the slots in the wing suggesting more movement is possible.

Richard depressed of Dunstable

If you have repro wings fitted you need to do a slight mod to make them fit a small slot where it joins the bowl surround

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1 hour ago, ntc said:

Back to the question in most cases the hinges are worn out 

Mine were worn even mushrooming the rivets failed to improve matters so I drilled them out and replaced them with a bolt, sleeve, washer and nylock nuts worked a fine for me so far. 

ntc - Thinking back I had to remove some metal from the wing where it sits on top of the front valance and the grill sits as it was catching and preventing movement is this where you mean? 

Edited by PodOne
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9 minutes ago, PodOne said:

 

Mine were worn even mushrooming the rivets failed to improve matters so I drilled them out and replaced them with a bolt, sleeve, washer and nylock nuts worked a fine for me so far. 

ntc - Thinking back I had to remove some metal from the wing where it sits on top of the front valance and the grill sits as it was catching and preventing movement is this where you mean? 

Correct 

Regards

Neil

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Success!! I had to loosen the three bolts at the bottom of the wing assessable from inside the engine bay under the inner wing hinge fixing point. I now have the 3mm each side I was after. Not bad only took me all day!! I'm worried now though that when I re-tighten them they will pull the wings back out

IMG_20210503_170347349.jpg

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35 minutes ago, Richmac said:

Success!! I had to loosen the three bolts at the bottom of the wing assessable from inside the engine bay under the inner wing hinge fixing point. I now have the 3mm each side I was after. Not bad only took me all day!! I'm worried now though that when I re-tighten them they will pull the wings back out

IMG_20210503_170347349.jpg

Good result in the end!

Tighten the top first then the gaps should stay put.

I'm busy making a loom and interested in seeing the wiring arrangement any chance you could take some pics of the other side and fuse box areas?

Edited by PodOne
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I hope so Andy. I need new spire clips now though as the couple I tried to tighten gave up. Thanks for your advice much appreciated. Thank you Neil as well I would never attempt some of these jobs without the support on here

Thanks again

regards Richard  

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On 5/3/2021 at 3:38 PM, ntc said:

Back to the question in most cases the hinges are worn out 

How can I tell if my hinges are worn out please? How much play is acceptable and what are the symptoms of worn out hinges?

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