Morris Minor Owners Club

Had to switch original bonnet with one from another car before I sent the car out for paint. have no idea year or model.
Now I discover the latch does not line up. Bonnet is fitted as well to the car as it can get.

The bracket on the other bonnet bolted on, whereas this one is spot-welded.
Rather than try and removed this, I'm thinking that an adapter plate to allow the latch to be bolted about an inch back would work.
Any thoughts?

would have thought cutting the spot welds through with a small hacksaw would be easier, then you can fit some washers inbetween the bracket and the bonnet when you attach the bonnet badge. Or make the bonnet hinge mounting holes slightly oval, so the bonnet sits further back. some food for thought!

Picky

Can't get the bonnet to fit any better, even by the adjustment you suggested. Tricky thing is getting it to be in position about 1" more in.
A lot of washers for that!. Almost need spacers.
I was surprised at the variation.
Did Morris workers just kind of hammer the bonnet into shape as they made these things?
Almost looks like had I banged it a bit before painting, I might have gotten it to line up.

I had the same problem when I fitted a new bonnet to one of mine. The repro panel was an terrible fit all over and took ages to get even close to looking right. I had to make some wedges from thick spacers which I fitted in between the bonnet plate and the lock plate. The spacers were ground into a wedge shape on a surface grinder but I guess if you used alloy spacers you could file them to shape...

The tubular bit inside the spring.... how is it held onto to plate? Is it bolted and can be removed? If so could you fabricate a new bracket that it is bolted to but with the bolt holes one inch forward of the current ones. It would look a bit more genuine this way.

If it can't be removed then some kind of adapter plate would be better and stronger.

I really need to use the old latch because of how it's constructed.
Remember that it's got that curved safety clasp on the right side built into the plate. (the thing that prevent the hood from flying up if the latch were released while the car were in motion).

Spacers might work except that the bolts that would hold the un-welded bracket are attached to the Morris badge that fits on the front, and not very long.

I'm thinking that I need to make an adapter plate.

The Morris badge is held by a nut onto threaded bar - It all unscrews from the badge so you can replace it with a longer piece....

Hello Mrsnak,

it might be easier to trim the rear of the bonnet and elongate the hinge holes some more, as long as the wing curvature matches the bonnet. That is what they do to make E Type Jaguar bonnets fit.

Alec

I suspect the front cross bar needs pulling forward - until the bonnet fits properly!

bmcecosse wrote:I suspect the front cross bar needs pulling forwrad - until the bonnet fits properly!

Seems to me I didn't have much leeway to adjust that, but it deserves rethinking!

Seems to me I didn't have much leeway to adjust that, but it deserves rethinking!

There is usually some leeway - where the front panel bolts to the inner wings gives a small amount of room for manoevre.(I'm presuming you have the panel over the bolt flange and not under it - but it's worth to check). The 'shape' of the front panel can be adjusted if needed (brute force).
The position of the catch plunger on the bonnet can be adjusted a little by elongating the bolt holes, and the same with the position of the catch plate on the front panel.
A combination of many small tweaks can help a lot.

you could try putting a car jack between the engine block and the front bar, to slowly bend and push it forwards. worked a treat when we had a rear end shunt in a micra and the boot wouldnt close


Picky

I would need to push that front crossmember out about an inch. That's fairly considerable. It's also got the radiator bolted into it, so I'd need to be really careful. Not much play in the bolt holes to work with, either. I did pick up a length of about 1.5" width flat metal bar that has holes drilled about every inch. I'm going to try cutting a couple pieces (2 holes in each) and using them as bracket extenders for both sides of the upper bracket. I will try a combination of adjustments.
This is quite a challenge!

have you tried fitting the chrome top bar and front panel up yet?

Isn't there a danger that the chrome bar and front panels will also not fit the back panel as they will be following the same line as the bonnet. or if they follow the same line as the back panel isn't there a danger that when you have got the bonnet to fit the bonnet is going to look a bit "goofy" on the chrome strip.

not much help with your problem I know but if it was me I would rather know before spending hours to get everything to fit and find out that I have more problems or i am not happy with the final result

I've been in the same exact situation and no amount of pushing/pulling/hitting helped at all... The front panel doesn't need to move as it fitted OK before with the old bonnet! The problem is the new bonnets that just don't fit....??? The only option is to adjust the catch mounting angle with spacers or if you are lucky by filing the holes out (although from the pics you need more than that wil give). Honestly, don't waste your time with attempting to adjust the front panel 'cause the rad panel and grille etc just won't fit right and look stupid

As has bin said- the bonnet must be too long, as the latch has a close relationship to the front edge. If you could move the latch back an inch the front edge would still be overhanging the slam panel by an inch, surely. If it's not practical to shorten it then look for another, but take a tape measure with you!

This new hood (bonnet) is pristine and newly repaired/painted. These hoods are not easy to come by here, just lucked out that I found one at all. This is an original hood (but not to my car).
Amazed that there was this much variation in old hoods. Can live with a little overhang. Better to have one that closes!

Here was my solution:





As you can see there will be a little overhang, but I may be able to visually reduce this when I bolt the front bodywork back on and tweak to front bonnet bonnet sides in a bit.





As you can see, I really had no room to adjust bonnet back.

The real problem is that the front panel is too far back - ease it forward!

also the position of the rad panel will also be dictated by the front cowl when the 2 are bolted together, and to get the top 2 bolts on the front inner wing part
try it all together first