As the song goes: "The foot bone is connected to the knee bone...".
As you have seen, everything tends to interact with everything else
in this area. LAst winger I fixed a long-standing problem on my
car: The front left corner had been hit a long time ago, and the
end of the front frame crossbar that holds the corner valence, and
the part that supports the bumper and bonnet hinge, had been pushed
a centimeter or two back and up. As a result, the left side of the
bonnet was high, and the gaps between the bonnet, the door, and the
rocker panel were not even. I removed the bonnet and all the
front-end sheetmetal and bashed the frame more or less back where it
belonged. After putting it all back together I had to align it all.
Here's what seemed to work for me:
Remove the black plastic bumper overriders, and loosen the bonnet hinges
(both sets of adjusting bolts). The adjust the rubber cone thingies
at the back of the bonnet (and their mating plates on the bonnet)
until the gap between the bonnet and the body just in front of the windscreen
looks OK. If the bonnet/rocker panel gap is crooked, you have to
adjust the height of the appropriate bonnet hinge. the theoretically
the bonnet-door gap should be OK, or least you can move the door to
get all its gaps even. After all is done you have to adjust the bonnet latches.
Ad of necessary toe positins of the front corner valences can be adjusted to
match
the bonnet. The bumper can also be adjusted, but only a little, or the
overriders
won't go back on.
Good luck. Remember that the bonnet is located by four ponts: the hinges and
the rubber cones. If they are not in agreement on where the bonnet should be,
it
will be crooked or warped.
Doug Braun
'72 Spit
At 09:28 AM 3/17/00 +0000, T. .R. Dafforn wrote:
>After reassembling the body of my spit after a major rebuild, I have got
>to the stage of aligning the bonnet...
>This is where the problems have begun, on one side everything is sweet,
>nice door to bonnet gap, good fit..
>on the drivers side, although the door is actually further back on the
>hinge adjustment the rear edge of the bonnet touches the front edge of
>the door.
>Its almost as though the bonnet is twisted in some way..
>Is there any adjustments I can make to move this side of the bonnet
>forwards?
>Say like loosening the bolts that attach the bonnet frame which attaches
>to the bonnet hinges?
>thanks for any help
>cheers
>Tim
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