MadaboutKitcars

Bonnet continued

Second coat of gel and a run of roving woven applied





Cut out the glass mat for the rear of the bonnet, laid it on the applied the resin





Left that to set for a few hours, cut out a sheet of mat for the front of the bonnet and applied resin…





Cut out and laid on some edge reinforcement mat and added doublers for the bonnet hinge positions, the latch bracket and the trailing corners



And finally applied resin, now to let that little lot set off nice and hard then onto positioning and bonding on the hinge and latch brackets.

Bonnet continued

Marked out position for the latch pin interface plate and bonded into place using epoxy resin and coated top surface…





Positioned the hinges onto the car and measured the distance between the holes…







Placed hinge interface plates into position, measuring from the centre of the bonnet and checked hole positions, then marked their positions onto the bonnet..



Applied the epoxy to each of the interface plates and bonded into place checking between the stud centres and applying the epoxy to the top of the plates..





Checked the fit of the latch pin and now wait for the adhesive to cure.

Bonnet continued

Right here goes, went around the edges using a piece of plate and a pair of mole grips to break any over bond…



After a bit of struggling hey presto its out, what a relief, no damage to the bonnet and a small amount to the mould…..



Trial fit of the aperture and its looking good, I now need to clean up the edges until the fit is good then back into the mould to complete the strengthening and final mat later…

Congratulations on a great rescue of that mould, looking good indeed!

Cheers, I just need to get back into it, first a holiday and then off I go again...

Looking good.
What other mods have you planned or is the end in sight?

Thanks, once the bonnet is finished I will be adapting a RX-7 rear spoiler to fit onto the front, upside down, I have shown that idea previously in the thread, I would also like to lower the rear arches as these cars always sat too high from the wheels and I have a Mercedes McLaren air brake I would like to incorporate into the boot lid, I will have to make some actuators for that though, I have loads of ideas but the main thing now after the front spoiler is to get the car on the road and the rest can evolve later. I think my next big headache will be the wiring as I am adapting the Honda loom for the whole of the car, ripping out whats not needed and sorting out the rest.....

Bonnet looks good, well done, perseverance certainly paid off. For that we will give you a few days holiday! Lol.
P.S. Look forward to following you through the other mods planned. Air brake sounds a fun thing.

Thanks, the air brake has similar shape to the lip on the rear of the boot lid so with a little thought blending it shouldn't be too much of a problem, the problem will be with sourcing the actuators and control system, I will put out my tentacles and see what comes back...

Bonnet continued

Lined the mould with cling film and after cleaning the bonnet edge placed it back into the mould for finishing touches.



Doubled up some fibreglass sealing ribbon and bonded it around the bonnet, this will then be soaked in resin and glassed over







Next the final layers of glass mat…

Bonnet continued

Shrunk on some heat shrink over fixings to avoid contamination when applying resin





Applied resin to reinforcing ribbon..



Next to lay up the final layer of mat and seal all the edges with gel coat…

Great idea about the heat shrink - I am guessing not the first time you have done that or is from experience of not covering them before?

It is a really informative build - thanks and keep up the good work!

Must keep ones threads clean or I will have the moderator after me....lol

Thanks for this thread. All of it looks beyond me - but bl@@dy interesting

Good luck

Dave

Thanks Dave, he who dares wins so they say, just take it all in small bites and it won't overwhelm you, I am lucky because of my engineering skills and able to use nice machinery and have some really good welders who have helped me when needed, anything you are not sure of google it and have a try or ask on these forums, lots of people are willing to pass on good info....

Pompeyal - Great work on the bonnet.

Does the "roving woven" stuff work in the same way as normal fibreglass matting?

Also your "sealing ribbon" looks like it does a much better job than the string I used.

Good luck, Paul.

Hi Paul, sorry I didn't respond earlier just got back from a holiday, yes roving woven works the same, it has the glass as woven threads and has good tear strength, the web I used is made of glass thread again and is normally used a boiler door seals. I just need to get settled back at home then I will finish the bonnet off....

Bonnet continued

Sorry for the delay, had an holiday… back to the bonnet then, cut a piece of glass for the back final skin and applied the resin





Next using the fibreglass ribbon I made up an air dam to stop any water ingress through the scoop to get to the ignition electrics




Once positioned a coating of resin was applied and allowed to set giving support for when the glass mat when applied



Next the mid mat section cut and resin applied







Next allow this lot to set off before the last piece of mat…

Bonnet continued

All set, now cut the glass mat for the front of the bonnet









Next applied the resin







Once set the bonnet can be removed from the mould and then cleaned up and sized to the car…

The bonnet looks great on this side.

So I really hope it comes out of the mould the way you want it.

Good luck, Paul.

I have had it out the mould prior to stiffening it and it has a few blemishes but that was to be expected after all the problems I have getting the mould from the plug, I am sure after a small amount of flatting back it will be as I want it, if not I will have to just start all over again....!!!! (Not Bloody likely) lol.

Bonnet continued

Now its out of the mould, pva removed and there are some imperfections as expected, next job to clean back the edges for a fit to the car then flat them back ..

Bonnet continued

Sanded around the edges removing excess material then sanded the underside removing any whiskers. Trial fitted into the car and with great delight it fits with pretty good panel gaps, that was a great relief, lightly sanded the imperfections on the finish with an orbital sander and went round with a wet and dry flexible sanding block and to my delight only very small areas will need stopping and flatting back so after all the problems I have had making this bonnet it has all come out well….

Well done so far. It's been a real challenge and I'm glad you have stuck it out.

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Dave

Thanks Dave, that was a major set back and disillusionment bit now I can see the end of that little task I have regained my enthusiasm and can hopefully make some speedy progress, hmm better not speak too soon though I have the harness to tackle yet, deep joy....lol