I bought a bonnet off a Westfield Sei (to match my nose cone) and thought it would be OK to store it somewher safe and laid it flat, in it's normal mounted on the car position
Today whilst sorting some other stuff out I noticed that it has 'spread' during the summer. It is now much lower, wider and seems to have set in this new position.
Question: Is it recoverable and if so, how?
So if there are any fibreglass gurus out there and I know there must be, please any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Yours in desperation.
Cheers, John.

Hi John,
exactly the same thing has happened to my Westfield and bonnet.Fortunately it only splayed out about 2" so it flex`s enough to get it on the nose cone.I was going to measure the width of the front body work and screw a piece of 2x1 with the same measurement to the underneath of the bonnet and warm it with a hot air gun to see if it would assume its original dimensions but never got around to it.

Cheers,Sean.

Use some straps to clamp it in place on the car when it's finished and the heat of the engine will make it pliable, then when it cools it should be back to shape.

Our MNR bonnet did the same - we fitted it to the car and mounted the bonnet catches - with it clamped in place it was fine after.... Depends how thick the glass on your bonnet is I guess, but ours was still plenty flexible enough to do this with...

Cheers


Vince

Stick it in the sunlight with weights on it or straps forcing into the shape you need. Fibreglass is a bugger for changing shape when left to its own devices - it needs to be stored in the exact shape or it will 'settle'

as said stick it in the sun for a bit that will make it flexible enough to get it back how it was.

Thanks for all the encouraging replies chaps. There may be hope for me yet.
It has spread to 44" wide at the back and sagged across the top at the front(reminds me of the sister-in-law ).
At this time of year a sunny day is not impossible here. The last few days, apart from today have been baking.
Wouldn't you know I didn't spot it until today. Guess I'm just lucky that way.
I think I shall make a wooden mould/box for it as I am not going to be fitting it any time soon.
I wonder how my clamshells are doing in the rafters?
Thanks for all the input Oh Wise Ones .
Cheers again, John.

[Edited on 4/9/10 by Confused but excited.]

When I bought my kit one side of the bonnet had gone almost flat and had even cracked the gelcoat - warmed it up and stored it properly for a while, when I got the bulge fibreglassed in to it, I got him to re-inforce the back of the cracked area.

Its not perfect, but it retains its shape very well now it is on the car - just the line left in the gelcoat.....

HTH, Steve.

By the way, this is how I stored my bonnet for a year...




hang bits out of the way!

[Edited on 5/9/10 by stevegough]