Evening chaps,
I'm interested in what one might use to keep the bonnet up if it hasn't got the support beam and prop OR how such a thing is assembled so I can build one. None of the spare bonnets I have in storage seem to have a complete prop.
I know they make gas-charged telescopic supports, but that seems like overkill for the lightweight Minor bonnet...
Mog came with an old wooden broom handle for a support, but after I broke that in a fit of rage, we've been using a length of PVC pipe. I'd rather something more permanent.
The way to a man's heart may be making food, but the way to my heart is buying me car parts!
Come read about my Minor at An American Moggie.
Minor bonnet is actually quite heavy.... Broom handle works well for most MGB owners - and for my TR7 boot where the gas struts gave up many years ago.......
Since you are on this side of the Atlantic you need a handier parts source. As it happens there is a guy about 10 miles from me that has a lot of Minors and parts stacked in sheds and rusting in the yard. Post a picture of what you have and I will see if I can find what you need. If your bonnet (engine hood) does not have the cross piece that the prop needs you might have to buy the whole thing or fabricate a cross piece. The prop itself is likely available.
Hmm...I'm fairly sure I could fabricate something easily (read: no money for extraneous stuff). I'm just not sure how the prop works. Is it a scissors-type thing that's in two parts, or is it a fold-down thing like the boot lid prop? This is what's in Mog's boot:[frame][/frame]
Perhaps a similar thing would work for the bonnet? Or perhaps gas-charged struts, or perhaps the original thing, whatever it is.
The way to a man's heart may be making food, but the way to my heart is buying me car parts!
Come read about my Minor at An American Moggie.
Here's a pic (mine hasn't got a spring on it):[frame][/frame]
One end fixes to a bracket to the right of the battery box and the other to the strut which goes across the middle of the bonnet. Here's a pic of one in situ (not my engine bay!):[frame][/frame]
Aha, brilliant! That's quite helpful. Looks very easy to fabricate...it's just two slats of steel and a random tube, right? Hmm. And it just locks by over-centering? There's no sliding shroud or anything?
The way to a man's heart may be making food, but the way to my heart is buying me car parts!
Come read about my Minor at An American Moggie.
That's not a a random tube, it's a spring.
It's made from fairly thick steel, if you zoom in to they locking tab you can get an idea. .5cm at a rough guess.
"Once you break something you will see how it was put together"
Here are some pix of my "homemade" prop. Just some galvanized flat stock. A little notch on one and a little "hook" on the other. No spring, either.[frame][/frame]
