Bonnet Advice..

[Q plate]

Hi all...slowly getting round to the front of the car and noticed before that my bonnet flexes a lot. Not a big issue at the moment but when you close it you have to be careful as it will land on the wing tops and once painted it's almost certainly going to cause damage. The cars had an older restoration & I think possibly a pattern/copy bonnet fitted as there's no reinforcement sections. Dave (Pascal's Pilot) allowed me to chop out some strut sections from a scrap bonnet but I've realised there should be a complete lower 2nd skin.. any thoughts?

 

[jcarruthers2]

Hi

It looks like they fitted an earlier bonnet which would have had a 'V' shaped brace in the bottom half of the bonnet which they have cut out due to the fact that it would interfere with the front end mounted radiator on your model. The earlier model would have had a centrally mounted radiator above the steering rack which would not come into contact with the 'V' shaped brace. Once the brace is cut away, the bonnet will lose it's strength and have a wobble to it.

 

[JdeW]

Indeed the bonnet is wrong as @jcarruthers2 described.
On your first picture someone fitted one of the two early bonnet models for Billancourt engine R4's, you've got a Cleon engine R4 so that someone removed a strengthening strut.
Here you see the two versions of Billancourt bonnets depending where the battery was mounted;


In green you see the strengthening struts or modificated strengthening strut.
Below you see the bonnet with strengthening plates for the Cleon (and later Billancourt) engine R4 which should be mounted on your R4 as you showed on your second picture,


I think Cleon engine bonnets are still widely available, so good luck in obtaining one.

 

[Q plate]

Many Thanks Jde, think my cars revealing itself to be more and more of a 'Bitsa' along with the Bonnet the doors are wrong for a GTL - no Trim Mouldings/wrong door cards & the rears have a fixed Glass, The Tailgates badged GTL but from memory the Glass is standard non heated? They're all solid though so I'm grateful for that.. either somebody in the past had access to some good early spares or as suggested on here before somebody's attempted to make it look like an earlier car? It came with a Chrome petrol Filler cap fitted for example the original Black plastic one was in the spares box.

 

[Andy McGhee]

I might be able to help with a set of door cards - do you need the brown tartan ones?

 

[Q plate]

Thanks Andy.. I've managed to collect some already along with rear doors for the windows & a set of the grey plastic outer trims came with the car

 

[mr-reno-139]

It is, possible to weld the sections that are missing in a different position to strengthen bonnet
Had to do this on friends R4 we fitted front radiator when it got converted to 5 gordini power
Will try and find pics and post later

 

[mr-reno-139]

Found pics
these are original bars cut out and rewelded to clear radiator
Needed several trial clamping B4 welding
5 years later still perfect

 

[Q plate]

Many Thanks for the info.. appreciated