Introduction from a new member & his car

[elansprint71]

Please could you repeat the question?

[Orsom Weels]

Please could you repeat the question?

This stems from my intro where I explained that I had issues with either cam cover touching bonnet, or, if I shuffle things arround, airbox hitting inner wing, so the question is, essentially, how do I lift the engine to clear the airbox &, at the same time, lower it to clear the bonnet .
It seems I definately have the wrong engine mount on the R/H side but if I were to fit the correct mount, I doubt if I would be able to even fit the airbox It would certainly rest very heavily on the inner wing at best. As it is, everything is ok appart from the raised rib on the left front corner of the cam cover arround the 'Big valve' script just 'kissing' the bonnet, presumably with engine movement. This is hardly noticeable from the under side of the bonnet but has resulted in a star crack in the paint.
As far as I know everything is as it should be with the gearbox mountig, but then again, like the engine mounts, it was supplied by Norfolk motor co, & it seems they may have been supplied wrong
Richard, not such a silly question, John & I have both looked into this, the bonnet fit is actually quite good 'in the flesh' so to speak, but if it could be raised a wee bit it would certainly not do any harm, question is, how do you adjust a +2 bonnet side to side is easy, anything else looks impossible short of cutting the bobins out & relocating them , don't really want to get into that .

It looks like a little shuffling with the l/h mounting could be the answer as long as that doesn't affect anything in the gearbox area.

Again, thanks for all your input, I'm sure we'll get it sorted


Cheers for now, Tim

[alaric]

Hi. On adjusting the bonnet height this would be the spring loaded plungers on the trailing edge of the bonnet. They screw into the cross bar on the bonnet with a locknut I believe, so there's a bit of adjustment there. If I recall from memory there's a screwdriver slot in the end of the plungers (or whatever they're called...).

Regards.

Sean.

[nebogipfel]

Hi. On adjusting the bonnet height this would be the spring loaded plungers on the trailing edge of the bonnet. They screw into the cross bar on the bonnet with a locknut I believe, so there's a bit of adjustment there. If I recall from memory there's a screwdriver slot in the end of the plungers (or whatever they're called...).

Regards.

Sean.

Hi Sean, Tim's problem (if indeed it is a problem) is the leading edge of the bonnet which doesn't have any up/down adjustment provision.

That said, and as he mentioned, the fit of his bonnet isn't too bad "in the flesh".

It would certainly require a disproportionate amount of work relocating the bobbins in the shell for a very small gain in the height of the front of the bonnet.

[Orsom Weels]

Hello all,

Thought it was time for a bit of an update. With Christmas & new year festivities nicely out of the way I?ve managed to escape home duties & neglect working for a living successfully enough to spend a bit of time on the Lotus. First job was to remove the engine. So, off came the bonnet, out came the rad & all the usual peripherals were removed. I decided to remove the head first, as it?s got to come off to change the water pump & it made removal of the bell housing bolts a lot easier, then lifted the block on its own. This reminded me just how long the nose is on a +2, I had to find a longer piece of box section for my engine hoist to get the hook anywhere near the engine! While I was nicely coated with old engine oil & grime, I also swapped the old Cortina bell housing for the correct item. (Anyone know what Ford the bell housing was from? I never found one exactly the same on the many models I looked at.) Next was to attend to the crack around the headlight aperture, which meant removing the pod. It was while doing this that I think I?ve solved the mystery of my bonnet touching my cam cover! I had noticed a small crack in the fibreglass where the inner wing blends into the nose in the l/h front corner of the bonnet aperture, sort of where the front edge of the bonnet drops into when open, just below where it hinges if that makes sense. (You can?t really see it with the bonnet in place) I found that with even gentle pressure on the nose, this crack opened more as the nose dropped, & with a gentle lift under the bumper, I could lift the nose a significant amount, there was no real strength in the l/h front corner at all, & as it dropped, it took the bonnet down with it, & as that was the side which was hitting the cam cover!!!!
Time to brush up on my fibreglassing skills then. So far, I?ve cut & ground out the area where the inner wing/wheel arch joins to the upper body outer wing/nose, which had delaminated & started to peel away, propped the nose slightly higher than it should be & re glassed the whole area, repairing the crack & tying every thing back together again. This seems to have done the trick, as there?s now no movement at all, it?s settled down to where it should be & it feels nice & rigid. I think the crack from the corner of the headlight may have been a result of the flexing, as it also opened & closed with the movement, although to a lesser extent, but it was a relatively easy repair by comparison. The l/h front is now pretty much done but on closer inspection, the r/h side is starting to delaminate so looks like I?ve got it all to do again! I?d already decided that at some point in the future I would like to rebuild the car onto a new chassis & maybe change the colour back to original, unfortunately time & resources won?t allow right now if I?m going to have it on the road for this year, so this is supposed to be a very much ?make do & mend? exercise to tidy things up & have some fun without going too mad, so hopefully I won?t unearth anymore little surprises like that!

All the best for now,
Tim