Stiffening fibreglass bonnet

Any one has any experience with mounting a fibreglass bonnet with original hinges at the firewall on a mk1?
Mine is mounted in the front of the car with just a bar and some bushings, I'm thinking of maybe "stiffening" the hood on the inside with some bars/callipers to mount it to the firewall instead but would like to avoid plasticize them into the actual hood.

Give me some feedback, pictures or just tell me if it sounds like a bad idea, thanks :laugh:

Mike Rowe has been going through some issues with a Forward Tilted BE Bonnet that he added some extra bracing and stiffening to.

.....................Trianglate.............................









is the...................................best method

I stiffened up one of my bonnets on the race car by fiberglassing some rope along the edges. You could do an 'X' across if you wanted as well. Light weight as long as you go lightly on the fiberglass. Same technique I used on my old C-Scow racing sailboat to stiffen a couple key areas just a bit.

Hedgehog that is a interesting way of doing that. What type of material was the rope and what size of rope did you use, Photos?

Did you soak the rope in resin then apply to a wet cloth bed, and then cover in fiber/cloth?

Yes, I am interested, years ago I used small wooden dowls with fibre added on the outside and triangulation.

Pat

Used to manufacture motorcycle parts in fiberglass.
Metal and fiberglass don't get along too well together due to different rates of expantion. Rope made of glass roving works well. Wood that is completely covered and sealed with glass works well also. If you need metal to bolt something to it is best to spread the mounting points over a fairly large area and whatever you do you can expect to use some filler to counteract the shrinkage of the new laminate when it cures. Roughen the old laminate before glassing to it and the area you glass to will have to be fairly wide since new laminate on old is'nt as strong as if the whole thing were made all at once.
Fiber glass is still a good way to make up a limited number of parts though I will bet you will have trouble finding the small quantities that you need at reasonable price's. Unlike 40 years ago when I was doing it.

Mike Rowe sent me these pics he did on his fiberglass BE Bonnet. He had similar issues in getting things to line up properly. His bonnet is front hinged. Sure you could do the same across the cowl. Might need to build a taper so the curve stays in the bonnet.

Jim_Gruber said:

Mike Rowe sent me these pics he did on his fiberglass BE Bonnet. He had similar issues in getting things to line up properly. His bonnet is front hinged. Sure you could do the same across the cowl. Might need to build a taper so the curve stays in the bonnet.

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The "Dirty Jobs" guy drives a BE??!

That's cool!!

Not the same guy but a really nice guy from Long Island.