Fitting Hood

Hi

Spent the morning at the paint shop where a curbed alloy was being doctored, hate it when I curb but got a good price from Ant so had it fixed.

The rest of the day has been spent very nervously fitting the hood, a bit expensive if I make a dogs doodads of it. The studs are already in place following the original holes from the original hood I am a little unsure of having studs around the rear, I know that it is a soft top and if anyone wants in it would be easy enough but its even easier if you can just pull the rear studs and climb in. So after a good search on eBay I found a supplier of decorative round headed bolts, not to expensive so I bought a pack to have a look at, if they are good quality and look good then I shall replace the studs. Not as if the hood will ever come of again.

I have had overnight to try and figure out how to fit the hood single handed as really it should be a two person job even if you know what you are doing, I did fit a new hood to the MX5 I had around 5 years ago but if I remember the frame was off the car and there was no gluing involved.

I decided to do the gluing in stages as I was using impact adhesive and wanted to get it right first time, so first job was to stretch the corner and mark the area to apply the glue on the underside with some chalk, I then glued around 6 inches and let it dry.

I then pulled this corner into position and held it there rubbing it smooth until the adhesive had taken.

I then repeated this on the other side.

Both corners were in position and pulled tight.

I could then lift the centre of the hood and brush glue onto the frame and the hood, not much chance of keeping these section separate for the glue to dry so I pulled the material into position and rubbed it smooth and tight.

I had already cut slots in the material to go either side of the clips.

The front had to be glued in so I brushed on the glue all of the way along the front underside and rubbed it into position, the leading edge had to have a sharp edge so I spent a bit of time making sure that was tight in position.

The corners had lots of extra material and I had to figure out how to cut of the excess and fold into position so it looked neat.

To get the fold I cut a section out from the bottom of the fold so that it would fit around the connector for the header rail.

I then glued this all up and stuck in position.

The front of the hood could now be folded over so lots more glue.

I formed the corner into what I think is the correct shape and clamped up.

I did this on both sides and positioned the seal rail, I had already cut the seal rail to size after lining it up with the original holes in the header so I was just a job of piecing the material to find the holes for the rivets.

I started at one end and riveted along.

I worked my way along making sure that the leading edge fold was as tight as possible.

When all riveted I fit the seal with a flat edged screwdriver, I put the back edge in first then slowly worked in the front edge.

After all of this work I still did not know if I had the hood tight enough as there really is no way of telling until the seal is on and clipped in position, so with this in mind I have left the excess material on incase I have take it all apart and refit.

I got in the car and fingers crossed gave it ago, it was a little difficult at first to get the hood clipped as it was a little tight but after a struggle I got the clips on and pulled it shut.

Nice and tight.

The front look good nice and tight but I can't seem to get the back as tight as I would like, still when the fancy bolts arrive I shall spend some time on the back and hopefully will get and folds out.

I shall leave the hood clipped for a few days to let the glue harden off then trim the excess material of from around the front of the frame.

I shall get the bonnet fitted next week but first I want to get the engine bay cleaned up as it is still rather dusty from the respray.

See ya Paul