• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Tilt Bonnet Hinge Kit 4 BugEye

Share this page

M

Mike

Guest
Guest
Offline
Has anyone used this kit from Minimania.com? I'm thinking this may be the way to go for replacing the roughly made hinge plates that came with the BugEye.
c-14a4684.jpg

Mike
 
This is the same kit that I used on mine. It seems to work well and makes removing the bonnet very easy. The only problem I have is that I have to be very careful opening the bonnet . If I lift one side too far to grab the center of the rear edge, the bracket will come off the lug that it pivots on. I have to say that the nose of my car was kind of tweaked in an accident at some point in its former life and although I spent many hours getting it back in shape, it may have some distortion to it and a perfectly good one might not have this problem. I know from practice that I have to lift it slightly from the right side. Also, because the pivot part of the brackets are not 'closed', as you can see, on a real hard bump, like a pothole, the nose can actually pop off of the lugs. These are where the bumper brackets mount.
 
Mike,
I just finished installing that kit. I agree with histerical that the bonnet can come off easily. My thought is that it was made this way by Minimania because they are into racing and might need to get the bonnet off quickly to work on the motor. What I did was to make an additional plate for each side that captures the bolt that goes through the body part of the BE. I had some extra stainless steel so I used that for my material. Now my bonnet can not come off the car unless those bolts are removed. It works great and I feel much better about opening the bonnet without worrying about the brackets moving around.
Charlie
 
Charlie:

Any chance of getting a picture of the additional plate you made and where you installed it?
Thanks,

Mike
 
I tried to do this as well, but failed on my first attempt. The problem I had was that the bracket on the bonnet does not seem to pivot exactly around the lug on the frame rail. I, too, would like to see how you accomplished this as the only problem I have, as I said, was that the bonnet can ride up off the lugs. Maybe it's just my car ?
 
I built my own front hinge kit from blueprints. No extra cable restraining straps. A stop is built in. Bonnet comes off with two bolts. Front hinge kit can be built with drill press, vise, angle grinder and a hand file. Around $40-50 to build with all nuts and bolts rom the hardware store depending on what you may have around the shop to use for the hinge bracket. I used 3 1/8" pieces of aluminum sandwiched together with JB Weld. Normally plan calls for 1/4 aluminum plate.

A copy of the plans is posted on Gerards Garage web site or I'll be happy to send you a set as a .pdf file.
 
BTW Lugs need to be ground off on the front bolt on each side so bracket sites flat.
 
The extra plate is easy to make. Just take either of the brackets from Mimimania and lay it on the material you plan on cutting the new/extra bracket from. Trace around the MM bracket and add a little extra bulge for the end that goes over the body lug. Cut the two new plates. Next drill out the holes from the tracing and make the lug hole just big enough to fit over the lug. Make the extra plate the outermost plate when you run the bolt through the body and it will capture the MM plates on the car.
Charlie
 
Oh yes, if I did not already have the Minimania kit I would have used what Jim used. He sent me great drawings, but it was to late since I already had the MM kit.
Charlie
 
Back
Top