Thursday evening after we got soaked at Wales 06 Joey decided to wash the car,
it was really mucky. It just so happened that our Mate Lee (2B 3) was going to bring his workmate Dave around to have a look at Joeys car this evening. He was strongly considering buying himself a 2B, and wanted to see if he could fit in one
He tried "B7" and was quite impressed. He had a sit in the drivers seat, had a good look round the car, Under the bonnet in the Boot, underneath and in the cockpit. We chatted "Car" for a whole hour. We discussed the build, the costs and any problems we encountered. By then Joey had finished washing the car and the weather was still good so we decided it would be nice to take Dave for a quick spin.
Perhaps all the signs were there warning me against going on this drive, firstly Joey had been washing the car with the boot open and we had to drain it all out, then when I found one of my training shoes full of water from a leaking Hose that Joey had set up, I should have just said "Not tonight Josephine" 
Foolishly I decided to go ahead with the Drive, Dave seemed very enthusiastic about it and it would have been a shame to disappoint him. We were soon strapped in and ready to go, Down the hill no problems, boy its great to get out in this car, Bottom of the hill and we turned onto Fiskerton road towards Lincoln keep below the 50mph limit till we made it out of Cherry then floor the Accelerator we had just got up to about 60 Mph (Honest Officer) then with no warning at all "Whack", The Bonnet flew back hitting the windscreen bending in the middle and the GRP hit both Me and Dave on the heads "Very Hard indeed". Bloody Hell it was sore and all of a sudden I had zero forward visibility "Oh Shit", Thankfully its a straight road and I managed to bring the car to a halt without any further drama, When we stopped I asked Dave if he was OK whilst lifting the Bloody Bonnet off our heads, He said "No I'm not when I looked at him I saw he had quite a bit of Blood streaming from the top of his head, I told him he was bleeding and he told me "likewise" 
.
I tried to strap the bonnet down as best I could unfortunately it was all bent beyond belief so we had to drive home at less than 20 mph, Typically we saw a nice "Cobra" drive past giving us a wave as we tip toe'd home.
Joey was a bit suprised to see us back quite so soon and was quite upset when he saw the state of his car asking me "What have I done !" Arghh
Now before you read any further please take onboard the fact that it was not a fault of our locking mechanism, that has proved itself to be totally reliable over the past year plus, but the real fault was the couple of plonkers (Me And Joey) who forgot to lock the Bloody Bonnet down.
Just look at the state of the Bonnet, what a mess, and look at the more streamlined Windscreen as well
All the rivets round the corner of the front edge were all pulled through the GRP
Both sides, it shows what a force it bent over with!
The rear end of the bonnet was not in a very good state either!
Again it was both sides that suffered. Look at the windscreen support and see how much it has bent back, its amazing that the Windscreen did not break! Take note that where the supports bent was "Above" the area that it bolts to the Scuttle so it did not just bend because we had "weakened" it by removing a section of the original support like was suggested on the RHOCAR forum!
Nope we could not beat these dents out!
These bits are the area's where the Stainless part of the bonnet contacted and bent over the Windscreen.
Not too sure what hit this Indicator probably my arm as I tried to protect my head
This bit was a favourite of Lee's, Look at the section of GRP which contacted with poor old Daves Head, You can even see clumps of his Hair embedded in the Dent No wonder the poor bloke ended up in A & E, I did offer to drive him there but for some reason he declined my offer!
Daves head took its toll on the front Grill as well, see how its dislodged forward of the point of impact.
The lower end of the Grill totally split from the rest and popped over the numberplate.
Look at the way the support is distorted away from the windscreen "Ouch"
So lets sum up what is the cost of our "Forgetfullness"
Bonnet sections, Windscreen supports, Nosecone and 1 Indicator.
Ho Hum, well we now have a new Bonnet from RH for £200, a new Indicator from Hein Gerick for £15 and the Nosecone came off 2B "3" "Thanks Lee". The broken one will be easily mended so thats one good point
Keep watching to see how we get on with a repair job, We are thinking of making a fixed nosecone and scuttle with a removable bonnet section, not because there was anything wrong with our original set up but it will be easier to sort out quickly.
I must say a big thank you to my own "A & E" Sally, the Paramedic next door I was a bit concerned that I might not wake up the next day so I popped round and she shone a torch in my eyes and asked a few questions and diagnosed me as being a "Dick Head"
More to follow as we restore Joeys car to its former glory in time for Stoneleigh.
Before we get on to the new stuff, look at my trainers, would you have gone after finding this? Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
So not only do we have a wet pair of trainers, "AND" a bent car.
We had a couple of Gashed heads as well
Right then lets stop the crying and get on with the restoration, we got our new Bonnet from "Robin Hood" and quite frankly the service was very good. We phoned up Saturday morning and it was ready for us to collect at dinnertime, RH even drove out to find us in Mansfield because we could not find them, which is good service in my opinion.
When we got to the impressive new site we had a look round and a friendly chat with the staff, then the lad brought out our nice new bonnet covered in the white film, Joey quickly spotted a tear in the film which warranted further investigation. When we removed the film there was a slight scratch in the Stainless, I quickly saw a bargaining situation developing here.
The scratch was in such a position that it would be hidden by the Windscreen brackets but of course I was not going to mention this to RH, the lad said he would have to make another one up but I said if I get a discount I will take the Scratched one, this was agreed but then, a certain young man with a rather large gob "Yes Joey" started shouting, "Its OK Dad the windscreen support will cover the scratch" a couple of sharp Kicks soon quietened him down much to the amusement of another Hoody customer who was watching
Back home and the rebuild started. We used the broken bonnet to measure out our cut point for the fixed part of the Scuttle and the holes for the Windscreen and Mirrors.
The right hand side seemed to fit OK.
Here is Joey tightening the inner bolts that hold the fixed Scuttle to the chassis, looks like a good fit.
Then we got onto the Bonnet section, the front end was not quite the same shape as the Nosecone, around this time we decided that we would rather do something different than a removable Bonnet so we decided that our new setup was to be a Fixed Scuttle and Nosecone, and we decided to Hinge the front of the Bonnet section to the Nosecone.
Right here we have both front bonnet sections in place, the Right side panel is more or less bent correctly but we need a bit more effort with the Left one as it sticks out a bit, It takes a lot of force to bend it to suit the rest of the car and can be a bit scarey at first.
Next step was to fix on the Nosecone we decided to make a couple of Brackets
like this.............
..........and This.
These will hold the side of the Nosecone nice and tight.
And here is Joey attaching the lower bracket that he had made up this is just a couple of Brackets which are bolted to the crossmember and then a piece of Aluminium Angle bolted to the nosecone which has some captive nuts on so we can easily fit and remove the Nosecone with the front Mesh fitted.
Back to the rear of the Nosecone and we used a strip of Steel bar and shaped it to suit the Nosecone and bolted it either side through the Headlight mounting plates.
Then we mounted the Hinge which bolts through the Nosecone and the Steel bar, the bolts are flat enough to let the Hinge shut flat and we staggered them so that these bolts do not intefere with the bolts that the Bonnet attaches with.
We used some small Stainless dome head bolts which had thin nuts on the underside and we ground them all completely flat, to stop them working there way loose we used a sharp center punch and put 3 dints where the thread meets the nut this damages the thread enough to stop the whole thing parting company.
And here is the proud lad with his new Bonnet setup all fitted.
Ho Hum, now all we have to do is fit the Windscreen, Deflectors, Mirror and trim it all up and Stoneleigh is in a couple of days!
But will we make it?
