Realigning a Spitfire bonnet

What is the bleepin' wizardry requried to do this?

Left side was too far in, causing a rubbing against the door, leaning to a bit of a bend(fixed). Other side was too far out, and "hooking" when I try lifting the bonnet.

After many many hours of work, I discover that the left(this is a LHD car) up-down alignment bolts had 2 shims on them. The mounting bolt was so far in(towards the rear of the car) I could barely get a socket wrenc h around it.

On the right side, the vertical alignment bolts were all the way down. Left side, moreso the middle.

After all was said and done, the door no longer rubs against the bonnet(yay). The other side, eh, it works. I could not get the bonnet perfectly aligned, no matter how hard I tried. It still shakes when I drive it, but that means I just have to lower those hood cones a bit.

A slightly twisted bonnet? I bad better luck with it than I did a brake drum bleeder screw that snapped off today(it's a write-off, could not drill it out).

Reply to
S1500
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S1500 realised it was Sun, 05 Jun 2005

22:47:46 -0500 and decided it was time to write:

There are two ways of adjusting the fore-aft position on a Spitfire bonnet at the hinges. One is what you have found: moving the hinge brackets by using shims. The other is in the hinge brackets themselves, as the hole for the hinge bolt is horizontally slotted. Take out the hinge bolt to see what I mean, but don't lose the washers inside the hinge.

They always shake a bit, although you can take care of most of it by properly adjusting the catches. Make sure the rear bonnet lip doesn't rest on the scuttle panel, the weight of the bonnet should be born by the cones. Better stock up on cones, though, since getting rid of the shakes means more tension on them than they were designed to take. ;-)

Could also be a slightly twisted (as in: skewed) chassis. Not an uncommon occurrance, which makes a bonnet nigh on impossible to adjust.

Consider brake drum cylinders consumables. They're very cheap - drilling out snapped bleeder screws is not worth the effort.

Reply to
Yippee

I was pleasantly surprised at the price for the new brake cylinder. US $15 at spitbits, $22 at vicky brit after checking.

If I only had The Doctor's sonic screwdriver I could have got that bleeder valve out perfectly.

Reply to
S1500

S1500 realised it was Wed, 08 Jun 2005

00:12:47 -0500 and decided it was time to write:

I strongly suggest you fit new ones in pairs.

Reply to
Yippee

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