Bonnet fit

[dougweall]

David,

This may sound extreme to say the least, but many many years ago I was faced
with the same sort of problem on an Esprit I had at the time. I had
purchased a ?new? bonnet from shall we say a company who made their own
fibreglass Lotus parts. The bonnet had a bow in it ?the wrong way?. So my
solution was to hire a space heater, with bonnet on it?s hinges, measured
the distance from inner wing to top edge of the wing. Used this measurement
minus the thickness of the bonnet to find out what packing was required to
lift the centre up to the wing edge. Then heated up bonnet across the centre
then after a while clipped the bonnet with packing back in place, left it to
cool down, but kept looking at it, but it stayed in place.
I think in heating it up as I did took all the stress out of pulling into a
?new ?shape.

I am not saying do it, but as I said at the beginning very extreme but I can
assure you it worked for me.

Oh by the way this was all done before I had the car completely resprayed.

Might set you thinking,

Doug

["e s"]

Not fer notin, but a plus 2 bonnet is not very thick, if this one is, someone has been in there. I wonder if the bonnet[if not the car] had a fire andsome bad bodywork. Looking at the expense of a paint job these days, mighta new bonet be a consideration?

My car has about a billion miles on it and now sag at all.....



----- Original Message -----
From: "ALLEN, David" <***@***.***>
To: ***@***.***
Subject: [LotusElan.net] bonnet fit again.
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 16:47:51 +0100



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_______________________________________________

[lotuselan2]

Allen

I got a little "roundness into my hood by slotting the bolt holes on the
metal cross pieces and pulling the bonnet and quickly snuggling the bolts.
It took a few tries but was good for a bit better fit.



Ken

'69 Lotus Elan +2 with BDR

_____

From: ***@***.***lto:***@***.*** Behalf
Of ALLEN, David
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 11:48 AM
To: ***@***.***
Subject: [LotusElan.net] bonnet fit again.



Hi,

Once I have to get the bonnet fitting correctly I can get my +2 down to the
paint shop. As I have mentioned before the bonnet has not sufficient curve
and consequently sags in the middle.

The only solution I can think of to rectify the situation is to cut through
the upright sections, bend the bonnet to the correct shape and re-glass
whilst holding it with ally strips riveted to the sides.

The question is will I be able to bend the bonnet? Has anyone ever tried
bending a large and quite thick section of fibreglass?

Thanks in advance.

David


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[davidallen]

Thanks for all your comments. Whilst there is no sign of a fire, it would
not surprise me!

Does fibreglass bend more easily if heated? From what little I remember of
my materials work at college, there are two types of plastic, one's which
bend very easily when heated, and one's which don't. I thought fibreglass
was the later, but I could be wrong, it was a long time ago....

David

-----Original Message-----
From: e s [mailto:***@***.***
Sent: 25 May 2005 22:54
To: ***@***.***
Subject: Re: [LotusElan.net] bonnet fit again.


Not fer notin, but a plus 2 bonnet is not very thick, if this one is,
someone has been in there. I wonder if the bonnet[if not the car] had a fire
and some bad bodywork. Looking at the expense of a paint job these days,
might a new bonet be a consideration?

My car has about a billion miles on it and now sag at all.....



----- Original Message -----
From: "ALLEN, David" <***@***.***>
To: ***@***.***
Subject: [LotusElan.net] bonnet fit again.
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 16:47:51 +0100







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The information contained in this e-mail is intended only for the
confidential use of the above named recipient. If you are not the intended
recipient or person responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient,
you have received this communication in error and must not distribute or
copy it. Please accept the sender's apologies, notify the sender immediately
by return e-mail and delete this communication. Thank you.

[kandmpc]

Fibreglass sags if it gets too hot as I learned when trying to speed
up paint drying on my bonnet with an electric heater !!!!!!!!!!

Ken