The Bonnet & Head Lights

A full (ish) day to work on the car with the only distraction being taking Allanah to and from dancing.  Myles helped me get the side panels and bonnet down from the roof space and clip on the side panels.  This took more effort that I had assumed as the chassis now has the ali panels fitted it's a tight fit requiring the lower lip of the side panel to be eased over the lower chassis.  Once the side panels were roughly in place I offered up the bonnet and moved the side panels to locate into the bonnet dowels.

Next I checked all the gaps around the chassis front and adjusted the position of the bonnet until it was central.  Then under the front of the car to mark up the bonnet and chassis for the hinge, after I was happy I removed the bonnet.

Drilling the hinge took far longer than I thought it would with the stainless steel writing off about half a dozen drill bits. Eventually the hinge was finished and I fitted it to the bonnet, using countersunk bolts and repair washers, then the bonnet to the chassis, using countersunk bolts and rivnuts, and lowered in down over the engine bay and scuttle - all was well.

Next was fitting the headlight brackets and their body fairings - it took sometime to work out where everything went and the bonnet needed some "fettling" to allow the brackets to fit due to excess weld on the bracket but again this was straight forward.

Finally I fitted the Head Lights and the Fairings - I couldn't find the 3.2mm rivets called up in the manual so used the 4mm ones with the big heads.

It was then time to call it a day as Billy & Paddy my two Springer Spaniels were desperate for a walk, so off to Ham Hill for an hour or so.

5 hrs for me and 1 hr for Myles - total 118.5 hrs.