Other half of the bonnet

 This started off so well, I managed to get a piece of wood out of my stash, cut it to size and do the profile. That's when I came unstuck...

The bonnet is a very different profile to the main body. While the body is a standard curve, the 'shoulders' of the bonnet start very early on before they head down to where the headlights are. Furthermore, the fake 'bonnet' has indentations that also make the curve a little more stubborn.

Putting the template on top of the bonnet shows the issue;

To be fair, it does follow the profile quite closely up to a point, but then the bonnet edge and the curve just make a mockery of the template.

However... this support has two main targets, support of the bonnet and the ability to install bonnet pins so it can be locked. Both can be achieved by simply making the support as wide as the fake bonnet. Actually no, that isn't correct. If I did that, I'd lose the scuttle panel space that this whole piece of work is meant to give me access to. 

OK, time for me to have a think about this... One thing I am going to do is at least cut that template to suit the chassis. While it is as wide as the body, the chassis isn't. So there's no point in keeping it wider than the car it's attaching to!!

As with everything on this build, my thoughts now turn to one of the other tasks I have, the sides of the cockpit;

The front is ok, that needs a scuttle panel which is partly covered by the work described above. The back also isn't too bad, yes it's a curve but it's only about six inches or so and can be simply filled in with whatever rear support I'm building up. 

The sides are then the challenge. Logic would suggest a panel going out from the chassis, meeting another panel coming down from the bodywork, would be the easiest option. Each half would be rivetted to the body and chassis respectively, with a right angle bracket and maybe rivnuts to join the two. 

There's a few issues with that. First it won't look particularly attractive. Second I'll be losing a lot of space for storage etc. On the other hand it would hide a multitude of sins where the IVA ball of terror wouldn't be able to check for projections. 

Time to make a decision on this... I'm going to leave it for now. Once the scuttle support and rear support are done, and the triangular bits at the rear have been cut out, I'll see what would be best.