I am off work this week, so really want to make some decent progress on the car.
Unfortunately, a pile of other chores also need to be tackled, so not as much to report today as I'd hoped...
Bonnet Bulge:
I spent a bit of time double checking the rear edge of the bonnet & the tight gap around the corner of the radiator.
Thankfully, I am now pretty confident that there will not be a clearance issue once I've sorted out the rear edge profile.
So I decided to start making the bulge and dug out a section of insulation foam.
Which was then roughly cut into shape.
The curve/slope of the bonnet means that the hole doesn't have a matching gap on each side.
So I just needed to make sure the top of the foam was flat (ish) before I started.
I also had to hollow out the other side so that it would sit over the radiator and the cap.
After a bit of work I had the rough shape I wanted.
I plan to do the final shaping of the bulge with filler when I have this basic shape in fibreglass fixed into position.
At this point I had to re-cover the car and get on with other things, but I was able to start the first round of fibre glassing later on.
By doing the work near the garden shed at least I didn't need to carry everything out to the front drive.
I wrapped the mould in some cling film, a trick I'd seen
Swifty & others do.
I them proceeded to make a complete pig's ear of putting some matting on.
But after a particularly messy session, at least I finally had a decent starting point.
I then left that to set while I got on with other stuff.
When that had set hard enough I gave a rough trim to the bottom edge to make it easier to remove from the mould.
Then I marked the bottom edge of the bulge on both the mould and then the fibreglass before the next round of trimming.
Then I took the covers off the bonnet to see the bulge in position.
I still need to give the bottom edge a final trim so they match the contours of the hole in the bonnet, but for now I just taped it into position.
I will also trim the edges of the hole to match the bulge so I can get a good join when I add matting to the inside edges of the hole/bulge.
I had several attempts at taking a decent photo showing the gap around the radiator cap & this was the best I could do.
Overall, I am very happy that this will be enough to sort out the clearance problem without any further work.
Right I'm just waiting for my wife to get home, so I can take her for a well deserved meal out.
( Our girls are at my mum's for the night. )
So until next time, take care, Paul.
