Holes In My Bonnet

[Antisocial]

I have finally finished my bonnet....and a few guys have asked about it, so here are the what, when, whys.

I got the idea about 3 years ago when I still had my 2002 XR6T, first I had to find a bonnet to modify, I got one for $150 that had been replaced with a fibreglass bulging XR8 replica. Then it took me another few months to find a suitable damaged but not completely stuffed Peugeot 206 GTi bonnet. This cost another $150. After numerous fruitless trips to Sydney to see bonnets that were stuffed or 'still ok to repair' all I can say is French car people are very odd folk.

My original plan was to use the black plastic vent from the Pug, I even bought one from the local dealership for another $48. I was concerned it would not be up to the job as I then discovered it is only used as a fresh air inlet for the cabin in the 206, and segregated from the engine compartment and I did not know if it could cope with the heat from the turbo.

Anyway I made a cardboard template to position the vent as far back and across as possible but to clear the inner parts of the vent from the under bonnet stuff like the rad overflow bottle and crossover pipes. I then cut the outer skin of the bonnet with a Dremel tool. I Cut out the vent section of the Pug and positioned it on the underside of the bonnet and carefully welded it in place, with my mig a spot at a time then cooling it with a wet rag.

This process took a month, of an half hour every now and then. At the time I had 2 small boys aged 2 ½ and 4 so spare time is pretty much non existent. Anyway I wanted to take my time so as not to warp the metal of the bonnet skin.

The grille dilemma was solved when a elderly blind man driving his crappy XE through a red light tore the front off my car. The plus side of this was that I could use the mangled lower grill to do the job, a saving of over $600 from the insane ford spares dept, rather than the plastic pug vent. I cut the F6 grill into 3 sections with the Dremel again, I only used 2 I trimmed them to size and bent the outer edges to shape. Then I just trimmed off the outer mounting points for the plastic pug grill from the underside of the bonnet and welded 2 threaded mounts between the two openings to secure the centre of the 2 sections of the F6 lower grill.

As this was the first time I had ever attempted such a task, the only mistake I made was not to notice that the pug bonnet has a much greater curvature front to back than the BA. This meant that the new bonnet has pulled in a bit at the back of the vent. Once welded to the pug insert. No one else has noticed this unless I have pointed it out, but its still visible.

If I were to make another I would cut slits in the inner skin of the pug bonnet so it would conform to the BA shape, then once in place weld up the slits. Or perhaps do away with the inner pug bits altogether and fabricate all the mounting points for the F6 type grill. But I would still need the cutout from the pug bonnet to get the neat curved edges to the opening also adding strength to the opening.

I then cut out a small section of carbon fibre, from a traded machine at work to stop water getting onto the brake master cylinder and clutch reservoir, but still with enough clearance that it let the heat out.

The only down side is the heat shimmers get a bit annoying when stopped at traffic lights but I can live with that.

Now each night in the garage, when you check under the bonnet, the engine block is the only thing that is still warm after about an hour.

Compared with before the vent was fitted everything under there was still too hot to touch 3 hours later.

Edited 11/05/07 02:24 PM by Antisocial

[YPURV4]

Looks nice mate good work

I like the fpv mesh aswell, I think it would look great on both sides of the bonnet.

[jasper361]

I like your work, look great!

Any problems with heavy rain at a stand still?

[TornadoJudd]

looks great mate!

[SCRIBR]

that's awesome!

great work!

I really get inspired to do more myself when I see writeups like this!

[mbjunior99]

That looks awesome, love the FPV grill

[EZ2CME]

Looks nice mate good work

I like the fpv mesh aswell, I think it would look great on both sides of the bonnet.

[JimmyXR6T04]

Looks awesome mate

I too think it would look great on both sides. Looks great with the FPV grill in it, top stuff

[RAPHOON]

Top effort.

Looks very factory.

[saleen]

looks good to me.

well done!