Few weeks back I went down and visited Brett and Project 2. 7 hour round trip to collect a bonnet, with a plan to use the front of it to repair my bonnet, which lost a fight many years ago with a garbage truck.
Idea was to take the skin of the donor and use my frame. But before I started with the transplant I decided, as the front of mine was in such bad shape, to have a go at repairing it as an exercise.
Failed to get a before photo, but here’s what it looked like after my first go at popping out the main dents. The main one released with a very loud and satisfying pop.
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Method was to use hardwood wedges to force the dents out following the main crease lines. Didn’t want to just belt it with a hammer as it would only stretch the metal more.
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After round 2
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Off with the bonnet latch to get more access and time for some hammer/dolly. I ended up using the dolly as a hand held hammer to work broader dents out, and hammer/dolly to get the creases.
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After another round things are starting to take shape. Missing the subtle centre line that fades in from the top of the nose to the bonnet bar. Starting to think maybe I can get this good enough.
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Slept on it, and woke up with a plan to get the centre line. Bent some filler rod and taped it to the underside to use as a guide. Made this little dolly for another project - should work to create a subtle line.
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Some hours, and a strip disk later. Recreated the line by hitting it from the underside as shown above, with a bit of hardwood with rubber around it on the back, then planishing it from the top with the curved dolly underneath sitting in the guide. Then general fine tuning, shrink disk, planish, check flow of curve with straight edge, repeat repeat.
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To say I’m happy with the result is an understatement. Really didn’t think I could get the shape back. If the damage was in a flat section of a panel it would have been a different story, but that curve really holds the metal in place. I have gone more pronounced with the centre line, I think it flows into the bonnet bird nicely. So much so, well I have gone this far……
It will hopefully help me remember when its time to wire it into the car.
