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The bonnet catches/bolts have a slot in them that you can just fit a long screw driver into. The trouble is that the only way to get to them is from underneath between the bumper and the radiator. A right git to do.
The torq bolts don't get touched as you can't get to them and I suspect normal bolts would be as bad unless you used a long socket extender bar
I can tell you that on both a cobra and 250swb kit its better to use m6 bolts.
While fiddling a perfect fot for the bonnet you might end up pushing it in its lock, then finding out that pulling the cable doesn't unlock the lot...
Then you are very happy if you used normal bolts cause they can be unscrewed via the grill opening
Okay, that explains it - for those kits you are probably right.
The Z300S doesn't allow access through the front grill so you have to reach up from underneath.
All you can see from below is the end of the pin in the catch so that is what you can turn. Without the access through the grille you can't get to the top bolts.
Having been busy at work lately I haven't had a great deal of opportunity to work on the car however after managing to find enough time to get to Stoneleigh on Sunday I was inspired enough by Tributes cars to get home early and have a few hours working on my own SWB and was surprised how quickly it all went together. In just 2 hours I went from having a stripped out donor to this
The bonnet and doors are not fixed in place but the sills are bolted on and body is roughly in place although not yet bonded for reasons that will become clear later.
I have had a steady stream of deliveries this week, all parts that I need to progress the car and I have made some decisions of what I would like to do and in what order. The big one being that Im going to leave the stock BMW interior in place for now so that I can speed up the build and get it on the road for the summer. I will then replace it with something more period in the winter along with making any changes that Im sure I will want to make once I have lived with it for 6 months or so. For now Im planning to paint the inside of fibreglass roof with truck bed paint as it is extremely hard wearing and will offer a little protection as well as give it a nice textured feel/look that I have seen on many SWB dashboards.
I have managed to get myself free for much of the weekend so all being well I should be able to make some progress now. I would like to try my wheels out for size however when coming to remove my old wheels I found lock nuts on them and I don't have the key. Bugger! Looks like I'm going to have some fun trying to remove them!
Failing that a quick trip to your local independent and they'll remove that with a snazzy device. I had a garage replace my tires and over tighten the locking nuts so it couldn't be removed and destroyed the head - my mate at the garage said no problem and 30mins later and a cup of tea they removed all 4 nuts.
I have to say that I like it in white too, amazing how well put together that kit is as a package, a tip of the hat to the Tribute guys. I look forward to your weekend update pictures!
I pushed some plasticine into the locking wheel nut. This gave a good impression that I was able to take to the BMW dealer to match.They keep a box of all the locking wheel nut keys.
After taking a closer look it seems that only one of my wheels has a locking nut on (a BMW type with 15 splines) and so I think that I will try to remove it myself. My plan is to drill a hole in the centre and hammer in a large Torx that is slightly too big for the hole before applying some pressure. If that does not work I can buy the correct fitting on eBay for £10, I'm just too tight to pay it before trying to get it off myself.
Yip although none with the same lock nuts. They come in many variants that look the same but the number of splines being different on each. No problem, I have ordered the correct socket on eBay along with a set of coil overs so I will hold off on fitting the body for now to give better access the suspension. There is still quite a lot of prep work to do in any case so it shouldn't slow me down any.
I have received plenty of deliveries this week including the lock nut key and my coil-over suspension kit. I tried on the American wheels that I bought and decided that I really wasn't very keen on them plus they would need me to widen the wheel arch so they have been put straight back on eBay and I will fit the steel wheels for now and possible change them for wires at some point in the future.
I had booked the afternoon off work today to give me a chance to make some progress however the sun was out for a short time so I decided to take my other toy for a spin instead.
My plan for the weekend is to remove the body to let me paint the internal roof, fit the new suspension, refit the body and if time allows, fit the door handles. On that note if Chris is reading, any chance you could let me know how you fit the mini door handles? I had a quick look at them and can see that I need to change the push action of the handle to a pull action on the internal mechanism, how did you go about this? Don't worry about the lock, that can be dealt with later.
The SWB is a very easy build but you wouldn't think it from how long it is taking me so far. Every time I plan to work on the car something comes up so this weekend I am planning not to plan to work on it and see how that goes!
There really isn't much to report on my build. I received my coilover suspension kit and have managed to fit the rear so that the body can go on when I next work on it and once that is on I can start adding lights etc before I paint it. The only part that I am unsure of is getting the mini door handles to work but I honestly believe that I could finish the car (minus paint) in a weekend given the time and correct parts.
I will look forward to seeing you build. Any idea on the look and colour that you are going for?
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