Well no research went into my build & mistakes were never ending.

I bought dax rush nose cone and a second hand westfield v8 bonnet i have a luego locost chassis so had to heavily modify both to fit with lots of hours and fibreglass. I was fairly if not very happy with the results until i fitted my pinto engine and now both nose cone and bonnet wont fit due to the hieght so i have to cut a hole to accomodate.


more crap bonnet

There are more pics in my photo archive

As you can see my cam is poking through the nose cone and the pinto single carb is sticking up through the bonnet...

Yeah you can laugh but im crying !

No real solution to this i know but does anyone know if there is any chance this beauty will pass SVA if not what can i do to pass without fibreglassing anymore poo to it as ive painted it now and have given up on it looking good.

I think the only solution is a tigeresque nosecone/bonnet bulge, lots more work, and another dose of paint, but you can do it. probably in time for the summer!

You should be able to get a bulge made in carbon fibre that you could stick on. That would look cool and shouldn't cost too much. There are composite peeps about that should be able to help out.

That would be awesome carbon bulge never thought of that !

Buy the way i like the look of your kit lightning.

A nice sub-project... it'll all be worth it in the end!

Hi Moa,

Unlucky mate. It's a pisser when things like that happen isn't it!

A planning mistake meant I've just had to cut out and move inboards my rear upper shock mounts. This meant extending the whole shock mount plate and moving the 'X'(?)rail and gusset it attaches too and then repainting- all a major headache.

As for yours- a bulge of some sort is the only way. It'll never get through SVA otherwise. a carbon one would look pretty good.

Alternatively (and more expensively!) the GTS bodywork is 1" taller. I've managed to use that but then my engine is about 12" further back than yours so was easier to fit it!

Atb,
James

If the parts of the pinto that stick through don't have sharp edges etc. then it should pass SVA, i've seen a road legal DAX with most of the EFi manifold sticking through the bonet and yes i'm sure was made after SVA came in.

Dont forget when you fit the cam cover you also have the oil filler cap which is a touch taller. (sorry to twist the knife!).

Your engine must be well forward. Ive just put my Pinto in and the air filter on top of the 38DGAS is just fouling the bonnet. Have you already cut the fibre glass? Could you build up the side rails of the chassi to allow the bonnet and nose to sit another inch or so higher? You only need to think about the scuttle alignment then. You can perhaps get round this by keeping the bonnet to scuttle position as is and just build the fron up to make a more level bonnet line (photo might be misleading to me but it looks like it slopes down at the front).

HTH
Darren.

Make a subtle sccop to cover!

Like I did

ATB

Simon
Rescued attachment 2004_1019Image0032.JPG

!!!!!!!!!!SUBTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes it does slop at the front and if i raised the tube chassis then the rear of the bonnet would look strange and there would be a gap in the bottom corners.

We are planing on moving the oil cap to the rear .

I think we'll put a bulge of some sorts over the cam and then maybe have a foam air filter sticking out (IF SVA APPROVE) and covering the bottom part of the carb with some fibreglass or something.

The thing i hate about this is that its a westfield bonnet which already has a bulge on it as it was from a v8 model but its in the wrong place and so now were putting more bulges on it which is just gonna look crappy.

to be honest, i'd be looking at scrapping the westfield bonnet and either make one from ally or get a different glassfibre one.

from the first picture, it looks like it has the stepped, swaged bits down the sides, and is a different radius to the nosecone anyway.

unless you have a westfield scuttle, it would appear to be a white elephant

sorry to say it, but that bonnet looks doomed to failure
very nice colour though
tom

I have to say that after thinking about this further, i have to agree with Indykid. Most people see the nosecone, bonnet wings etc first on these cars and if they dont look quite right people start to doubt the rest of the car. The old engineering saying rings true here -
"If it looks right then it probably is right".

For the sake of compromising your whole build and not enjoying the end result, if it was me then id re-think the nose and bonnet and start again.

You probably dont want to hear this but IMHO there nothing worse than seeing a project that has taken someone a long time and a lot of good effort being spoiled by some dodgy bodywork. Could you use the current panels to model up what you want then take a mould from them to get the final finish? This way you could build in vents etc and get the height right at the same time.