Bonnet Alignment

[Motorsport Artist 0]

I have just replaced the bonnet on my 205 and find it does not sit with equal gaps between the two front wings. Also, both sides of the bonnet at the front to back midway point are sitting proud of the top of the wings with the bonnet catch engaged. The Haynes manual is rather ‘pants’ in describing bonnet alignment and I wonder if anyone has experience of dealing with this without damaging the back corners of the bonnet where it meets the scuttle panel?

 

Cheers

 

Fran

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

You can adjust the plunger height on the bonnet by cracking off the large nut and winding in or out, also the bonnet rubbers on either side. Just make sure it does close properly and catch correctly. Sounds like they both need winding in which will lower the front edge of the bonnet. You may need to tweek the hinges in order to get it to line up with the line of the wings side to side.

[Ams 23 1 Cars]

I had a similar misalignment when I fitted an auto bonnet. Overall I found doing the front first was the easiest, the rear end was bloody fiddly and became a two man job.

 

The front was sitting proud when shut but I found you can adjust the height of the spring mechanism - loosen the large nut and then use a flathead to screw the rod in/out until your happy with the shut line. Be warned, some have experienced trouble here due to rust.

 

For the rear section I managed to sort the raked appearance of the bonnet by loosening a pair of hinge bolts (a pair on each side sat in line) while keeping the bonnet at a low angle, levelling the angle/height, then tightening and shutting to see if it sat right. Be careful to make sure your adjustment doesn't result in the rear touching the chassis (thus scratching the paint) when lifting the bonnet fully.

 

The two bolts per side in question are marked "A" in the exploded diagram of the hinge bottom right: