Removing bonnet tricks

Here is what I think is the quickest and most straightforward method to remove an E-Type bonnet (so long as you have the bumpers installed and don’t have seized bushes). This can be easily done by one person but one helper would make it easier.

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  1. Have the car on its wheels and place a thick carpet under the front. Open the bonnet and remove the lighting plug.

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  1. Prop the bonnet, then undo and tie back the stays. The bonnet will then tip forward onto the carpet and balance there.

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3) Remove the 2 3/8" bolts which hold the bushings in the frame.

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  1. Ease out each bushing while steadying the bonnet with your other hand.

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  1. Tip the bonnet up on the carpet and walk it on the overriders over to a wall. Support it cushioned with and old duvet or similar against the wall. This is where a helper is nice but not actually necessary.

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  1. Carry on with your job, knowing that the bonnet will go right back on where it was so no alignment problems. Just remember to use antisieze on the bushings.
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The lovely Mrs. Wilkinson, for scale…:wink:

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Had seen this in the thread but missed the helpful detail about removing the bushings.

Love seeing your tiny SO holing that bonnet!

We have the bonnet at 90 degrees at this time so will reassess if complete removal will occur.

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I have been following this thread with great interest as I am hoping to adjust my torsion bars this spring and plan on removing the bonnet. I wonder though if I am missing the bolts that hold the bushings in place? I bought the car in 2010 and have put over 30,000 miles on it with the bonnet having never been removed. It is a 1969 Series II OTS. Am I missing the bolts or is this how the car was equipped back in 1969?

Yikes!!!

You are indeed missing the bolts, and they are kind of a special shoulder bolt, so you’ll have to get them from one of the usual’s.

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You need to go buy a lottery ticket right away…but don’t drive this car. You are beyond lucky. Yes there are threaded inserts in that tube that receive bolts (3/8s maybe?) to hold those steel bushings in place. One or both could have vibrated out at any time and you surely would have wrecked.

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Wow. You are lucky. The one time stuck bushings actually did some good. Just hope that the bolts were not sheared off in there.

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Before you replace the bonnet, make up a couple of these (below). They are self extracting bonnet pivots, which also draw themselves into the bonnet frame on re-assembly. You’ll never have to deal with stuck pivots again. It also helps to use a bit of anti-seize, btw.

I used all stainless parts (just because) but you can just use the stock Jaguar ‘top hat’ as the basis.

The top hat needs to shortened a bit (1/8"? I might have the dimensions somewhere) then a bolt with enough threads is used with a nut that has a couple/three notches cut into it. The nut is threaded onto the bolt leaving just a bit of free play to the assembly. The nut is then welded to the bolt between the notch openings and then ground round to give suitable clearance for insertion into the bonnet frame tubes.

I shared this design with Julian Barrat of SNG several years ago in exchange for a free pair of the production items, but AFAIK they have yet to appear in their offering.

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THAT is a brilliant idea!

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Many threads have been written on this topic, but at the risk of repetition, here goes. I had to rebuild my entire front end due to an altercation with a mini van. When it came to removing the bonnet, the front hinges with the top hat fittings showed no interest in my endeavor , so plan B …a BFH and an Oxy-Acetylene heat source needed to be brought to bear. This along with numerous lashings of penetrating oil and a stand by fire-extinguisher, finally convinced the seized top hat bushings to shift. Of course the nylon bushing disappeared in the struggle but were replaced by a more realistic copper one which was imagineered from a 1/2" copper plumbing fitting drilled with 1/8 holes to take grease.
Which is the point of this discourse. Make sure you tap in a 1/4" grease nipple into the bonnet bracket, you will never have to go through the above again. best regards, Mytype.

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Hello Phil,
As others have noted, you are missing the bolt that secures the Top Hat Pivot to the frame. Given that the Top Hat Pivot Bush hasn’t worked it’s way out, it likely that its’s being held in place with corrosion and won’t be overly easy to remove.

I make these Top Hat Pivot Bushes and as the bore size of the original is the recommended tapping size for 7/16 unf, I tap 3/4 deep from the outer face so that a slide hammer can be used to extract it.

I dislike with a vengeance, gripping the outside of the Top Hat Flange with vice grips or multi grips, so using a slide hammer is a means of removing the part with zero damage to it. Further, moving it axially with the shock load of a slide hammer is easier than trying to rotate it if seized.

I suspect that your Pivot Bushes will be stuck, therefore, tapping them 7/16 UNF, or UNC (UNC will leave a larger flat at the minor diameter of the Thread) in position would not be difficult.

Regards,

Bill

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This part of the process is fundamentally wrong.

In the original system, the end of the small diameter of the Top Hat Pivot bottoms out in the bore of the horizontal bar of the Bonnet Hinge Frame and is locked solid by the end force exerted by the 3/8 securing bolt. In this position, the gap between the end of the horizontal bar and the inside face of the flange of the Top Hat Pivot should be such that there is from very slight interference to slight end float with the thickness of the lug of the hinge including the flange thickness of the nylon Top Hat Bushes. The bonnet hinges, with their nylon Top Hat Bushes should then swivel on the stationary Top Hat Pivot Bush and securing bolt assembly.

With your arrangement, the bolt and the nut welded to it, will pull up tight on the bottom face of the bore of the horizontal bar and be stationary. The free play between the Top Hat Bush and the Nut and Bolt assembly will ensure that the Bonnet Hinge and the Top Hat Pivot Bush will rotate on the bolt.

With the standard depth of the bore in the ends of the horizontal bar, the standard length of the small diameter feature of the Top Hat Pivot Bush would have to be shortened by the thickness of the nut. But that still won’t stop the Top Hat Pivot Bush rotating on the bolt with the hinge.

Regards,

Bill

I assumed that is what the OP did.

The length dimension in his drawing equates to a reduction of 0.162" (circa 5/32") of the standard Top Hat Pivot Bush. Standard thickness of a 3/8" UNF nut is 0.337" and even the thin series, which seems not the case in his picture, is 0.227". So in the case of the standard nut, there will be a considerable gap between either the inside face of the Top Hat Flange, or the end of the horizontal bar and the respective sides of the lug on the hinge.

Regards,

Bill

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Thank you all for the responses! It looks like I have a project on my hands when the car comes out of storage in a few weeks! It is often a surprise what a person stumbles across on these cars!! I never considered myself a real “lucky” person but I guess I need to change that thought! Haha
Again, I really appreciate all the suggestions!

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On my Series One E-Type, I replaced the OEM top-hat units with ones I machined out of brass stock, and they have never given me a problem in removing them. On my Series Three E-Type, those factory top-hats were stuck in place when I bought the car, and sadly I’ve never made the effort to replace them. When I had the car re-painted, I missed the opportunity to extract the stock top-hats, and the body shop merely un-bolted the hinges from the bonnet bulkhead. A missed opportunity on my part!

The slide-hammer removal method sounds reasonable at first blush, but with the bonnet in place, there is insufficient clearance to the sides of the top-hats before you foul the sheet metal of the bonnet lower pan. Thus the crude attempts to engage the flanges of the top-hats with vice-grips. :frowning:

Best of luck, and let us know your results.
Jay

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A bit of grease or antisieze on the bushes when you reinstall them and the’re probaly good for ever, so there’s absolutely no need for any of these fancy modifications

I had my '62 for 40 years and had other E-Types before that and had never had a problem with stuck bushings.

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That’s my solution keep it simple
Mig a nut to the end of the bush ( tack) and put a wrench ,impact gun on it ,cut the nut off ,put it together with anti seize, wet rag around the paint if your worried about it Done

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That seems like a straight forward option for removal

We may end up doing that, but I have a few schemes that I will try when I get down there.

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