Hood Frame Refurbishment

Hi

Back at it again, been just over 3 months since things got done, mostly because of 2 months at work but I felt I needed a break as I was making mistakes and bad decisions. I think knocking the bonnet and cracking the paint was the kick I needed to leave it alone for a while so last months leave I spent ripping the bathroom back to the plaster work, re-plumbed re-tiled and fitted a very nice steam / shower and fitted bathroom furniture. 'O' and a new central heating system, but I had men in to do that.

I have been home a week and have quite a few things done, first thing was to arrange for the bonnet to get painted again, when I knocked the corner I bent it a little, I straightened it no problem but there were so many coats of paint on it that that is what cracked. Cost £80 to have it fully re-spayed and polished so that will teach me to be more careful. 

I have also decided to put a few mistakes right, the first was the wiring loom for the front of the car.

I had everything working fine but was not happy with the junction box I had fitted to hold all of the wiring in one place; all safe and dry, this I thought would cause confusion in the future.

I decided to put it back the way it was originally but to make a neat job of it so I bought a big bag of bullet connectors and got to work. I ripped out all of the new wiring I had fitted and run the looms back under the wings.

 I have connected and taped everything up neat and tidy and everything works perfect again.

Very good exercise in learning the colour scheme of the front loom, I can fit it in my sleep now.

The other change was the rear combination cluster, I had bought LED lights without realising that the huge reduction in load would affect the timing of the indicators in that they would flash to fast which would be an MOT fail. To fix the problem was simple, just fit a couple of ballast blocks to replicate a 12volt load on each side, but like the wiring box I had fitted I thought this would also lead to confusion so bye bye LED and hello 12 volt.

I bought this set from SVC for £62 including postage, not quite Lucas quality but they should be good enough. They don't come wired so first job was to get all of my colours out and fit some tails.

They bolted straight on and worked first time of connecting, looks like I know the rear lighting loom of by heart as well.

Another problem I had was that one of the wiper wheel box drives had a damaged thread from trying to remove it originally which meant that the scuttle had to be removed to replace it. I have a new one from SVC which fit perfect, just a little difference between the new and the original in that the original had a rebate in the shaft in which a rubber sleeve was fitted.

 The new one has a straight shaft and no requirement for the sleeve.

The main job I have been on since arriving home is the hood and the frame as I hope to get this fitted this time home and have made good progress.
I knew from the start that hood required replacing and that there was rust patches around the front end of the frame.

The main areas are around the edges where the water gets blown in from the window edge.

The first job was to remove the clips then drill out the rivets on the seal lock strip.

These rivets and glue are basically all that holds the hood to the frame, the main attachment is at the rear where the hood is studded to the body.
Once the hood was off I could get a good look at the extent of the rust damage.

It was mostly to the outside of the header and not to deep.

I put the header rail in my blasting cabinet to see how bad it was all over and was pleased that there was no penetration.

Next job was to strip it down, the plastic finger guards are riveted in and these came of first.

I decided on lots and lots of photographs as there was no chance of putting it back together again without them.

You can see how complicated it all is.
Each joint is bolted with a plastic bush separating and allowing movement on each joint, I stripped it all down keeping the right and left sides separate to make re-building easier.

Everything went to the powder coaters along with the battery box, £50 for the lot.
I picked them up yesterday and as always I was very impressed, beats the hell out of trying to paint them.

The battery box came up great.

The frame is just as good.

No more rust.

I started re-assembly by cleaning all of the plastic parts in soapy water and printing lots of photo's, it took a little while to figure out where to start but having kept both sides separate when I took it apart made it a whole lot easier, the threads were filled with powder coating so all of these required tapping out at 6mm.
I started with the flat section and attached the first piece which was the long arm of the rear rail, when I was happy this was in the correct position I attached the opposite end and carried on this procedure all the way through.

The long cranked section went on next.

The long double bent section went on, this is the hinge which connects the centre rail.

The shorter cranked arm went on to the last hole in the rear rail.

The middle could now be attached, to make fitting easier I attached a connect bar first.

The centre bar is then attached.

The lower hinge arm is then swung up and bolted on to the centre rail.

The top bar is the last of the hinge mechanism to fit, this is the section that takes the header rail.

The header is bolted on and can be adjusted around 10mm back and forth so I have left it only hand tight ready for final adjustments.

The finger protectors are riveted in position and these went on.

I had bought a roll of 25mm sticky backed felt which I stuck onto the backs of both rails to protect the mohair from rubbing.
I checked the frame for freedom of movement and put a drop of oil on each hinge section.
The header rail seal comes with a aluminium lock strip to attach to and this required cutting to size and a couple of rivet holes drilled in.

The hood fabric is glued into position around the header rail and the lock strip is riveted over the top to seal and stop movement of the hood.
I gave the clips a little buff up and fit these, there is a little amount of adjustment on these so again on hand tight.

That the frame built and it looks like new so hopefully it will be on tomorrow.

see ya Paul