Last update on bonnet fitting for now

 It's time for me to work on something else, I knew the bonnet fit would take a very long time so to keep myself motivated I'm going to switch jobs. And it also doesn't help that I'm getting very tired of fibreglass fragments and getting my fingers caught between the bonnet and body. At least it shows a good panel fit if it can cut off finger circulation.

Anyway, last few photos to wrap up this stage. The last job was to remake the cross member that supports the bonnet. Because of the way the body/bonnet doesn't line up with the body as clean as it would on an MK chassis, I've already had to make a few changes. I had initially made the cross member with a slight curve, however now that things have come together it was clear to see that the curve was no longer required. It was also higher one side than the other (only by 5mm). So a bit of fettling I ended up with this, with the strip of rubber across the top to finish it off;

The next stage here will be a couple of rivnuts either side, to go through to the body. But if I plan it very carefully, I can put the fixings in just the right place to replace them with some leather strap type buckles to have it look at least a little 'old'. This sort of thing from CBS;

They will be positioned so that it looks like the bonnet opening is secured by the straps. Of course it won't be, basically five out of the six fixings will just go into the body and the last screw will go through to the rivnut. 

Anyhow, that's getting a little ahead of myself, here's the bonnet shut line view as it is now;

The first picture shows how close it is, I'm really happy with the alignment. The second picture is at a lower angle though, and you can just make out the fact that it's very slightly proud, the bonnet is maybe 1-2mm higher than the body. I think this is a good thing, because when I add the bonnet fixings it'll tighten things up and the alignment will be spot on. 

I still need to manage the sides, there's a slight curve on the bonnet that isn't in the body so I'll need some brackets and some locking mechanism to sort that out. No biggie, just not a job for now. On to the next task...