They were rusted and over painted black, so I removed them, cleaned them up, and painted them body colour. Both Porters second edition (page 108) and Rogers book (page 350) indicate these pieces should be painted body colour.
The mounting plate is sort of an unusual piece because it bolts directly to the front of the chassis, and also bolts directly to the body. The green arrows point to the holes used to bolt the mounting plate to the chassis, the red arrows point to the holes used to bolt the plate to the body.
My questions are: should the two bolts attaching the mounting plate to the body, be painted body colour?
And, should the three bolts attaching the mounting plate to the chassis be unpainted?
I believe the answer would depend on whether the mounting plate was bolted to the body or not, when painted.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Looking into this detail a lot closer, I now think this bonnet catch was painted BLACK regardless of body colour… see attached pic of a very original Peral Grey DHC…
I have many other photos now confirming black, and on closer look now believe cars I thought with a body colour catch although mostly original, had been repainted in this area…
And another white car - 11000 miles from new, time warp original…
Roger et al,
Not a completely time-warp car (as you can tell from the colour), but mine was actually very little molested otherwise. When I dismantled this bonnet latch and its associated parts, the black paint came away very easily and was covering shiny metal, with no primer beneath or old body colour. The metal was genuinely shiny, and had definitely not been blasted to remove old body colour (Carmen Red). I am sure the black was the original factory finish. Given the quality of the repaint, I do not believe whoever did this work would have gone to such a lot of trouble to remove any sign of the original paint from the bonnet latch. They didn’t bother anywhere else, with new paint just blown over the old.
I had a detailed discussion on this with Gary a while back. I was convinced my car’s bracketry had originally been black, but the conventional wisdom then (a couple of years ago) was that these parts should be body colour (i.e. were painted with the body rather than with the chassis). Unless whoever worked on this car in the US in the seventies paid diligent attention to the latch bracket, which was not applied anywhere else in this car(!), mine were always black, and a thin coat applied directly over the bare steel with no hint of abrasion to obtain a key.
I seem to remember that we decided between us that we would fly in the face of that convention, and I’m pretty sure we were right - although Gary’s post at the top of this thread makes me question my memory. My car is now Mist Grey, but you get the idea.
edit - to answer Gary’s exact question, I used the original BEES and GKN bolts and fasteners, all in black passivate. I suspect that these should actually be painted black, if the latch bracket was attached to the chassis before painting. The body ones I would guess to have come out of the factory’s fastener bins and be blacked.
For what it’s worth, I ended up painting the mounting plate body colour, with the bolts attaching the mounting plate to the chassis remaining black, while the bolts attaching the mounting plate to the body being painted body colour.
I think the reasoning (which may, or may not be correct), at the time a couple of years ago, was that at the factory, the mounting plate was already bolted to the body at the time the body was painted.
All I know, is that it’s dang difficult to remove and then install the mounting plate from a 140 with the body mounted to the chassis already. I hope the factory workers didn’t have to install the mounting plate after the body was attached to the chassis.
Anyhow, here is a picture of how it looks today, after being driven since then.
Although I don’t have a horse in this race, perhaps I can offer a thought from my experience on production lines.
Assume that Lyons and his minions were clever at figuring out efficient ways to do things on the production line, fewer wasted and unproductive motions, in order to hold down production costs, which they certainly did hold down.
Ask these questions.
Is the mounting plate necessary for getting the bonnet aligned, so it would latch properly with the main body on the body assembly line? If no, then they would paint them in large batches on a parts rack and black makes sense. If yes, then they wouldn’t remove it from the body afterwards for painting and body color makes sense.
Assuming the plate was previously attached either to the body or the chassis, now after the body is placed on the chassis, is it easier to attach the final bolts to the chassis, or to the body?
I’ve actually removed and replaced mine several times for various reasons with the front of the car completed. It’s only three nuts and bolts on the front, and two at the sides into the inner wings. It’s easier if you remove the lower hose shield plate, but then you simply remove the the five nuts and bolts, detach the cable, and tap the assembly upwards over the chassis. In the photo I posted above, grey car with black latch bracket, I had only just replaced it before taking the photo. Bottom hose and wiring harness in place, etc. - it took about 5-10 minutes.
Having done this a number of times, I can see the bracket being mounted to the chassis first, then the body dropped down, but I can’t see it being attached to the body before dropping down onto the chassis. I can certainly see it being added after the body and chassis are assembled. The only adjustment this bracket has is the top plate, retained with three bolts, which can slide sideways but not fore and aft. I’d say that on the production line, this top plate is fitted loosely to the bracket, then the bracket assembly fitted, then the plunger aligned laterally with the latch hole and the three bolts tightened and cable attached.
