Morris Minor Owners Club

The panel gaps on both sides of my traveller '67 bonnet seem to be excesive. The seals are there but having no effect.
I reckon that the bonnet needs moving forward, closing off the 'v' shape.
Do i start with the hinge point on the bonnet or the point on the body/under the dash.
I am a little cautious about opening an can of worms.

The fixing below the windscreen is not adjustable fore and aft so use the other two on each hinge. You may have to slightly ease off the windscreen one but it is awkward to get at and you should tie string to the spanner so you don't loose it.

Excellent!! Thats the sort of advice that you cant get from Mssrs Haynes.
Thanks, Happy new Year

If you move it forward you will probably then also need to adjust the catch at the front. Be careful you don't end up with the bonnet jammed shut and can't get the catch to release!

Does the bonnet close properly,ie does the plunger fit accurately into the front panel locating plate, do you have a constant gap along the back of the bonnet. The adjustment on the bonnet hinges normally allows movement to clear against the bulkhead or give a small amount of adjustability fore and aft. The problem you describe is not the bonnet, its the inner flitches or the wings which have not been worked on to get an accurate shut gap. If your car has had new flitches check that the bonnet is not catching on the top of them as the radius of the 'new' panels is not correct and no longer follows the shape of the bonnet.
You can tell if the flitches are in the correct place by measuring from the edge of the bonnet (when shut) to the outer face of the flitch. This distance will be your shut gap.
Your options are leave it alone and accept the gap
Remove the wings and work on the mounting edge of them so that the gap is closed up.
Remove the wings,and four bolts retaining the top of the slam panel and physically push the flitch inwards until you are happy with the gap.
I'd be tempted to work on the wings, the worst area on them is the meeting point of the vertical hinge cover and the wing mounting face, this area is normally out of line with the rest of the face and needs to be dressed to achieve a tight fit against the flitch. If the wing mounting face is at an angle that increases the bonnet/wing gap then re dress this area until the gap closes up, ie reduce the angle to bring the wing inwards.
You can send me, or post here some pics so we can see the actual problem and advise from then.

Thats just the can of worms i was thinking about. If, when i look closely, the bonnet front edge is sitting back towards the screen, i will look at pulling the bonnet foreward. If not, i will take the cowards way out and leave well enough alone.

Thanks

Wise move I think!

leave well enough alone.

If it aint broke, dont fix it.

As Jonathen has said this can be fixed with some major fettling, but, the fit from the factory wasn't too clever to start with. The Morris started life as the Mosquito (I think that was the name) which was 4" narrower. It looked naff and was widened 4" hence the centre raised portion of the bonnet. If you have good wing to door shut line alignment, the other complex option is to remove the bonnet and have it widened by the correct amount on an English Wheel.

What I suspect happened in pre production, was they made the bonnet 4" wider in the plans, then pressed in the centre raised portion, without allowing for the shrinking effect this has on the bonnet width.

Or you can employ my criteria for a non concours car, if it looks OK from 10 feet it's fine

if thats the criteria, then i have a damn fine motor. Thanks for the info.