Ed - how come your safety catch didn't prevent this ? Cars even older than yours have had them for years ?
Dunno. In fact I dunno what a safety catch is. The bonnet catch didnt, so I assume it wasn’t fully engaged. Combination of hammering and bottle jacking got it bent back enough to open and sort of close but it needs more work around the leading edge. I’ll use a rope to the front towing eye now and in the future, if there is one. Wasn’t as difficult as I expected. It’s probably quite light relative to a more modern one and of course I don’t worry about cosmetic damage
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Ed - how come your safety catch didn't prevent this ? Cars even older than yours have had them for years ?
Dunno. In fact I dunno what a safety catch is. The bonnet catch didnt, so I assume it wasn’t fully engaged.
Every car I have had since about 1980 (or probably earlier) has had a two-stage bonnet catch, so that if the final one lets go accidentally the 'looser' one prevents what happened to yours ?
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Ed - how come your safety catch didn't prevent this ? Cars even older than yours have had them for years ?
Dunno. In fact I dunno what a safety catch is. The bonnet catch didnt, so I assume it wasn’t fully engaged.
Every car I have had since about 1980 (or probably earlier) has had a two-stage bonnet catch, so that if the final one lets go accidentally the 'looser' one prevents what happened to yours ?
Well, if I can get it unbent to the point where the catch engages apparently normally (It MIGHT be half engaged at present) I'll try and investigate its operation, but even if apparently fixed I doubt I'll trust it again.
A bit of rope inspires more confidence.
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Dunno. In fact I dunno what a safety catch is. The bonnet catch didnt, so I assume it wasn’t fully engaged.
its the lever that you move to pull the bonnet up with, it has a hook at the top to stop the bonnet from flying open.
very often the return spring breaks and it doesn`t close with the bonnet as it should and as you usually cannot see it, not many realise its broken, most springs on those and the sunny were very weak/broke easy, and same with early Vauxhalls so you probably wouldn`t know it was broken anyway.
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very often the return spring breaks and it doesn`t close with the bonnet as it should and as you usually cannot see it, not many realise its broken, most springs on those and the sunny were very weak/broke easy, and same with early Vauxhalls so you probably wouldn`t know it was broken anyway.
Whenever you 'pop the bonnet' you have to release the catch by hand before you can lift the bonnet. If you no longer have to do that, it's broken as Bolt suggests.
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Dunno. In fact I dunno what a safety catch is. The bonnet catch didnt, so I assume it wasn’t fully engaged.
its the lever that you move to pull the bonnet up with, it has a hook at the top to stop the bonnet from flying open.
very often the return spring breaks and it doesn`t close with the bonnet as it should and as you usually cannot see it, not many realise its broken, most springs on those and the sunny were very weak/broke easy, and same with early Vauxhalls so you probably wouldn`t know it was broken anyway.
I forgot to mention, if you remove the locking mechanism the lever/hook should have a spring on it to return it to closed position when you move it sideways, they are easily replaced if its missing or broken, nice little job
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Thanks. If/when I get it bent back a bit better I'll investigate, though I think I might continue to use the rope. It gave me a bit of a fright and, since I was on a curve in a fast bit of road, could have resulted in a collision.
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though I think I might continue to use the rope. It gave me a bit of a fright
Harder work undoing a rope, especially if its easier moving a lever sideways with a decent spring on, I could never understand why boy racers put bonnet clips on either side of bonnet as you then have to move two clips instead of one, they might have looked good?, but some I doubt were fast enough to worry about bonnet flip up, lol.
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though I think I might continue to use the rope. It gave me a bit of a fright
Harder work undoing a rope, especially if its easier moving a lever sideways with a decent spring on, I could never understand why boy racers put bonnet clips on either side of bonnet as you then have to move two clips instead of one, they might have looked good?, but some I doubt were fast enough to worry about bonnet flip up, lol.
Always assumed this was part of the racing rules in some class and became a "go faster fashion" from there.
I this is the case I'd suppose the clips were in some circumstances safer, even if only because they were easier to check.
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though I think I might continue to use the rope. It gave me a bit of a fright
Harder work undoing a rope, especially if its easier moving a lever sideways with a decent spring on, I could never understand why boy racers put bonnet clips on either side of bonnet as you then have to move two clips instead of one, they might have looked good?, but some I doubt were fast enough to worry about bonnet flip up, lol.
Always assumed this was part of the racing rules in some class and became a "go faster fashion" from there.
I this is the case I'd suppose the clips were in some circumstances safer, even if only because they were easier to check.
Maybe a single safety hook wasn`t trusted to stay in place if the bonnet catch failed, though I have never seen one fail- its not impossible- if the bonnet is bouncing in the wind at high speed ?..
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... some I doubt were fast enough to worry about bonnet flip up, lol.
Remember the early Clio models had front-hinged bonnets which never had this worry. Many earlier cars did too, of course. The downside was actually working in the engine compartment.
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Remember the early Clio models had front-hinged bonnets which never had this worry. Many earlier cars did too, of course. The downside was actually working in the engine compartment.
Not for E types, Heralds, Spitfires and their types.
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though I think I might continue to use the rope. It gave me a bit of a fright
Harder work undoing a rope, especially if its easier moving a lever sideways with a decent spring on, I could never understand why boy racers put bonnet clips on either side of bonnet as you then have to move two clips instead of one, they might have looked good?, but some I doubt were fast enough to worry about bonnet flip up, lol.
Not really much trouble to undo a knot, but I could use a bungee cord and/or a snap shackle for more convenience.
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Dunno. In fact I dunno what a safety catch is. The bonnet catch didnt, so I assume it wasn’t fully engaged.
its the lever that you move to pull the bonnet up with, it has a hook at the top to stop the bonnet from flying open.
very often the return spring breaks and it doesn`t close with the bonnet as it should and as you usually cannot see it, not many realise its broken, most springs on those and the sunny were very weak/broke easy, and same with early Vauxhalls so you probably wouldn`t know it was broken anyway.
I forgot to mention, if you remove the locking mechanism the lever/hook should have a spring on it to return it to closed position when you move it sideways, they are easily replaced if its missing or broken, nice little job
Had another go. This time I tried lowering the car onto the bonnet and rolling it off, which seemed to work, but didn't give much control so I went back to using the bottle jack. I bust a couple of spot welds hammering on creases (which are now less obvious) and have stopped doing that.
Putting the hinges back on though it still doesn't fit properly, and I can only get the secondary/safety hook to engage, not the main/primary catch.
This hook does indeed seem to have a spring missing, though it seems to engage passively without one. Dunno where I'll get a replacement spring from but I'll start enquiries.
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