I’m working on my 1961 Mk2 project. I stripped the exterior and hoping to put epoxy primer tomorrow to protect the bare steel until spring.
I noticed that the center strip sits down from the skin of the hood. Is it supposed to be that way or do I need to make a relief cut or two on the hat section and weld it back together sitting close to the skin?
I can only speak of the XJ where the reinforcements have been glued in places and otherwise have a gap. My thinking is that if the bonnet vibrates it should certainly not rattle against the strip. So it makes sense to have a gap and I would not modify it.
I was looking at how it’s attached and the front is spot welded and tight to the skin where the leaper bolts on. At the rear it’s welded to the crossmember structure the hinge bolt onto. At that location it can’t be tight to the bonnet. I’m thinking of a strip of material between or filling the gap with the adhesive used on E-type bonnets.???
The clips that secure the bonnet centre chrome have little tabs diagonally opposite at each end and twist into the slots, so the reinforcing beam cant fit flush with the underside of the bonnet or you wouldn’t be able to fit the clips.
IIRC, and it’s been a while, somewhere there is a hemp-like anti vibration strip between the frame and the bonnet skin, but I think it runs laterally at the rear and I don’t think there was a similar strip down the middle, but there could have been a couple of pads at certain points. Like Hardura, but without the vinyl covering.
