the seams in which the chrome trim is inserted.
Do they have oblong washers on each side of the seam and is the head of the bolt placed towards the inside of the car or outside?
Wiggs, I am counting on you to answer in 2 min. or less.
Mr Wig is watching golf and asked me to reply.
On my S2 there are oval washers on each side and the bolts heads are toward the inside.
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Further - this photo shows how the tabs for the beading were folded after being inserted and trapped by the seams:
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thanks,
Bonnet came back without the oval washers installed in many places. Now swapping them in one at a time.
BTW oblong washers from SNG are about .100 inch wider than original. Have had to grind three down so far. Hope that’s all. I have $37.00 worth of them to go.
What do you mean by “trapped”? Do you think they were inserted and then the bolts were snugged up to “trap” them in the seams?
the round spacers between the seams are a lot thicker than your normal hardware store washer if that’s what your body shop used. the brass clips should slide in the seam when the wing bolts are tight.
should slide in fairly easily and hold themselves in when folded over properly?
I suspect I have the right washers in there because no washers came back and they were quite good about returning everything they didn’t put back on. (ahem) like the air dams. And the gap between the fender quite large.
they did give me all the original oblong washers, for example, I just didn’t want to clean them all.
Ahhh, I see you went for the double bent tabs. I feel so pedestrian with my single bends.
Whilst we’re on the subject of bonnet seams: my car is due back from the paintshop tomorrow, and before refitting the chrome strips I feel I ought to inject rust-proofer of some kind into the gap.
What’s the view on this?
Trim is inserted in, whike the seam bolts are loose.
Then, you push down, and fold over brass tangs. I used twice as many brass tangs as stock, to keep the bead evely close to the wing/bonnet interface.
THEN, the seam bolts are tightened up.
The base primer and paint, properly applied, should be all the protection needed.
so how do you keep everything aligned with loose bolts?
Should I loosen them up before the car goes out to paint? Then put the trim on after and tighten?
Or leave as the are, get car back…loosen bolts…insert trim?
I’d personally have the wings and bonnet painted apart:,that way, you get good paint coverage over the radius of, and into the flage areas.
Then, bolt the wings on, loosely, and do your intial alignment.
With the flange bolts barely finger tight, and painter’s tape all along the flange area, insert the brass tangs into the slot (an extra pair of hands is mighty handy, at this stage), fold them over, pushing down te bead, tab by tab.
Then, finger tighten a bit more, check alignment, and then gently snug up the bolts.
When all looks good, tighten fully, and remove tape.
They don’t need to be loose if a few things are true. The spacers must be the correct thickness. The tangs must be new and straight. The channel needs to be clear of gunk at least in the areas where the tangs will be pushed though. Use some soap on them to let them slip easier.
It’s ideally a 2 person job, one to hold the end so it doesn’t flop around and scratch the paint, and one to guide the tabs through. Don’t forget the one in front of the baffle. It needs to be shorter. If you want to be fancy, bevel the front end so it matches the profile of the headlight trim. I just did this with Drew on his freshly painted car, nuts fully tightened.
I replaced my bonnet beads a couple of weeks ago, when I also replaced the gutter chrome. I first ran a layer of duct tape on either side of the slot, just far enough away so it wouldn’t be under the bead when it was installed. Then I taped a moving blanket over that with more duct tape on each side of each lhot. So I wound up with two layers of duct take and a moving blanket on each side of each slot.
Next I laid out the bead along the channel and marked the bead with a sharpie where the brass tabs would go. I assembled the tabs in the bead, positioned at the marks.
Starting at the headlight end I pushed the tabs through the slot, working my way back. Once all the tabs were through the slot I tapped the bead down with a rubber mallet and with the bonnet open held the bead down with one hand while I reached under with the other hand and grabbed one side of the brass tab with a pair of pliers. I then used the pliers to pull down on one side of the tab while bending it to the side. I did this to ensure the bead was flush against the bonnet. Then I bent the other side of the tab the other way and moved on to the next tab
New bonnet bead will be longer than you need on an open headlight model. I cut mine so that about an inch and a half of bead was under the headlight eyebrow. Remember to measure twice and cut once.
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Check: Tweet’s were as-delivered.
Check: Tweet’s were as straight as delivered…which wasn’t very.
Not quite check: Tweet’s wings had never parted company from the center section, and even with the MOST judicious use of hi-power water blasting and thin metal-leaf scraping, there was some schmutz that simply would not release.
With a newly-painted set of parts, your method apparently works.
I tried…no joy.
YMMV…
Good move: I depended on three layers of 2-inch wide painter’s tape, taped 4 inches out from the seam, and had no help. Needless to say, a waving end and a brass tang resulted in a tiny goink 4.1 inches out from the seam. Never seemed to affect the mileage or driveability.
Bill,
If you took the bonnet apart you found that there was no paint behind the washers, and most likely no rust, as the bonnet was assembled when painted.
It’s hard enough when I take something apart to know what’s what. In this case, the body shop took it apart to hammer on it and put it back together. So, I am feeling my way through this
“under the bead”. How did you get it out after?