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"Bonnet Lock" Cables Revisited

PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 8:50 am
by AlfaLofa
The two "Bonnet Lock" cables on early Elans have pulls with a short stem and an overall length from the front face of the pull to the base of the stem of 25mm.

These pulls (with a cable which would need to shortened) are readily available on eBay. They were fitted to the Rover P4 series and also the very early P5 cars. The short stem pulls may also have been fitted to the very early P6 series (which was introduced in 1963).

Later P5s and P5Bs as well as later P6 Rovers had "Bonnet Lock" handles with longer stems. The distance from the front face of the handle to the base of the stem being 32mm.

I don't know if all Elans had the short stem handles - perhaps the later cars went with the flow and were fitted with the later long stem variety.

So if you are after a cable/pull on eBay (I received a short shaft yesterday from a P4 breaker in Wales) use the year of the car as a guide. Early (perhaps pre '64) = short, late = long.

The attached photos show the difference.

I've found the easiest way to whiten the script is a wipe of Tipp-Ex - followed by a clean-up with metal polish to remove the excess.

Also as an aside, fitting a pair of long stems under the crash pad of an early Elan does make it slightly easier to open the bonnet and also lessens the chances of damaging the edge of the crash pad due to thumb pressure (which should obviously be avoided at all times).

Re: "Bonnet Lock" Cables Revisited

PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 9:05 am
by Mazzini
Thanks for that interesting post - appreciated.