Frame Fitting and Hood

Hi

Already to fit, I gave the plastic pieces a bit of a rub with some Turtle wax black polish which brought them up nice then sorted out some new stainless bolts. There are 2 cover pieces that fit above the bolt plate section which give it a bit of a finish and allows for silicone to be squeezed in to stop water ingress.

Before fitting the frame I had 2 plastic protectors to rivet on to the back of the body, these stop the frame from hitting the paintwork, unfortunately I dropped one which of course fell into the side of the car and went into the wheel arch, no way of reaching it. So I made 2 new one's from a piece of 3mm rubber and riveted these on.

Then carefully I positioned the frame into the slots and lined up the holes.

I test bolted it in position and opened up fully.

The rubber seal wont be fitted until the hood is on but I clipped the frame into position to check for alignment.

Once happy I undid the bolts on one side to lift the frame a little and squeezed silicone into the slot then bolted back and repeated on the opposite side.

I gave the carpet a good spray of glue then stuck everything back in position.

Now the tricky job, I know it won't end up the same as if a pro had fit it but I shall give it my best shot.

First the unpacking.

Ray made a lovely job, black mohair with a beige interior, I test fit on the frame to see what it looks like.

I had kept the old hood and retrieved it from the loft to compare, the first thing I noticed is that there is a steel bar fitted in a pocket at the back of the hood.

I managed to remove it.

On looking at the new hood I found a pocket sewn into the bottom to receive the steel bar, I first checked the holes against the body then slipped it in.

I positioned it in the exact centre and marked the holes around.

Ray had included a pack of fasteners with the hood and it comprises of.

An anvil, a riveting tool, also a hole punch (which is not in the picture), rivets and the 3 parts of the fastening.

The first job was to rivet on the buttons to the car, small problem with these in that the rivet sits recessed into the button which means the rivet nozzle cannot fit inside, bit of a problem as when you pull the rivet it ends up slack as the rivet head pulled up to the nozzle leaving a small gap when compressed. I solved the problem by fitting a 2mm nut onto the shaft of the rivet which fit into the recess effectively extending the nozzle to fit inside the recess. problem now was I kept dropping the 2mm nuts, very difficult to find.

To fit the stud, first mark of the hole.

Punch a hole.

Position the anvil.

Fit the fastening.

Then hammer away, it does not take a lot as the riveting tool is very effective.

I uses a small piece of round bar to finish of and give a flatter finish.

I finished all of the fastening where the steel bar was and fit in position.

I then marked of each fastener to either side and fit these.

After fitting the first on either side I decided against having the steel bar in place as it created a large lump in the hood and kept popping of the studs, so I removed the studs I had fitted then re-fit them without the metal bar to see what it looked like. When the steel bar was in you could see daylight when looking from the inside out as there was a gap, gone now. When it is all finished I shall lift the studs and fit velcro around the bottom to ensure a good tight fit all the way around. This may not be the correct way of fitting the hood but trial and error.

Getting it to go around corners is a bit of a problem I shall re-position when fully fitted.

The real difficult part is the front fitting, the back I can fiddle with but once I glue on the front then thats that, so after a lot of pulling and swearing I decided to fully fit the frame with the header seal in position then pull the hood tight and mark with chalk where it folds over the front.

I then released the frame and folded the hood over the chalk marks and clamped .

And this is as far as I got as I had forgot to buy the impact adhesive.

What I plan to do is to pull everything smooth then when happy to remark the chalk positions, I shall then loosen the hood and put the glue just on the top and re-clamp to the new chalk positions. When set I should then be able to close the frame to test fit, if all good then I can cut all of the folds and glue then rivet on the seal strip. Hopefully it should be nice and tight and there is also around 10mm of play on the header as I have it at it shortest setting so I can tighten the hood another 10mm after gluing. 

Well thats tomorrows plan.

See ya Paul