Bonnet Panel Gaps - Help/Suggestions

[Wes]

Hi Crew,

I'm about to tackle the panel gaps on a CSL bonnet (with the locking pins). I dropped the panel on the car tonight and a few things jump out straight away.

1. I can get the gap behind the nose cone looking very good - uniform gap 5-7mm.
2. If nose cone is set correctly I have a wedge shaped gap on the RH side 3-7mm (7mm back near wind screen, and.
3. LH side has a gap 5-10mm (widest near windscreen.

The bonnet isn't original to the car and the car has had the fenders off in in the past. It looks like something has to move (fenders are still welded to the car).

I'm thinking that the best way forward is to set the bonnet correctly, relative to the nose cone and then perhaps run a cutting wheel down the inner drain channels and then massage them until happy?

I'll shoot some pics tomorrow.

 

[eriknetherlands]

I think relative to the nose cone is a good starting point. I'd check if the nose cone is untouched. If it is still having original spotwelds then it'll work out just fine.

From there the fit to the front window should line up. If those front and back are ok, i follow your reasoning that the fenders arent centered.

You can even check that without the hood. If you tape a string along the centerline ( takes some time to get it witin a mm correct, i know), then you can measure the distances to the edges of the fender. You'll likely need a second set of hands to make it easy.

As you say fenders have been off, i suspect that they may be ones needing massaging. I'm feeling though, that it'll be tough to reach good fitment by only removing the four strips in the hood inner edge, as the fenders are fixed along more points then just those. The welds under the front window - Apillar will resist pulling the edge in/out near that corner. Also the front weld to the nose cone will be fighting you.
Opening those up will give you all the freedom though.

 

[ScottAndrews]

From the measurements, it seems that the hood opening is wedge shaped slightly, and very slightly offset to the left side of the car (looking from the back of the car). Based on those numbers the opening is 1 mm off from the center line at the front, and the rear of the opening is 9 mm wider than the front.

Front: Total lateral gap=5+3=8mm
Rear: Total lateral gap=7+10=17mm

Seems like adjusting the wedge shape will be a challenge.

You could widen the front by 2 mm by moving the right fender out 2mm, and filling the gap somehow.

But, narrowing the rear by 4.5 mm seems very challenging since that width seems to be fixed by the firewall and cowl.

Are you just talking about moving the inner edges of the fenders? and removing or adding material to fill in the gaps?

I suppose you could move the front of the right fender out 2mm and then add some material to the inner edges of the fenders...but then when the hood is open, you will see the trough along the inner edges getting narrower as you go back.