Things are progressing well and the list of things is getting shorter the daily. Very therapeutic.

Sill waiting for the paint to arrive to finish the wings so I made a start on the next obvious component… the bonnet. One of the things that makes a Land Rover a Land Rover is the bonnet mounted spare wheel. Other storage options were available… on the rear door, or fixed to a frame on the rear bulkhead. At the end of the day, LGL will have a spare on the bonnet and the rear door 🙂

LGL has what’s described as the “deluxe” bonnet. (who’d have thought) I’m not sure if it was offered as an option or just came as standard on the Station Wagon model. The other variant, the “razor” bonnet can be seen on vehicles of a similar age though. The only real difference being the edges of the “deluxe” model above both wings and radiator panel are more rounded and there’s a recess where the spare wheel sits. The razor model, is just… erm… less rounded. See below.

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Razor bonneted Series 2 (less rounded right? 🙂 )

 

In order to do the job properly, the spare wheel mount needs to be removed as well as the internal strengthener frame. The latter typically never gets much attention during a rebuild but looks great once tidied up. You only see it when the bonnet is opened though.

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Deluxe bonnet ready to have its rivets drilled out

 

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Underside. The black frame will also be removed and repainted

 

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First thing to be removed is the spare wheel mount. The 9 dome head rivets will need to be drilled out to get this off

 

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The head of each rivet is “punched” to give the drill bit a key

 

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These rivets are very soft and with a keen 5mm drill bit it only took a few minutes

 

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More accumulated dirt

 

The same procedure was carried out on the remaining 39 dome head rivets and the 15 pop rivets to separate the frame from the skin

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Bonnet skin and frame. Both now ready for a thorough clean.

 

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Degreased, cleaned and thoroughly rubbed down with a scotch pad and ready for matt black Hammerite. This is the underside…. the side that will never see light of day but it still gets painted.

 

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Once the underside was painted, the frame is flipped over and the top side is done

 

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Hmm. Shiny satisfaction 🙂

 

This was the first time I’d sprayed Hammerite with my spray gun. All the other black components (incl the axles) have been done from spray cans. It comes from the tin with the consistency of bitumen and getting it thin down to a sprayable consistency was bit tricky. The first attempt was so wet, I had to wipe it off and start again. With some luck, the whole lot will have gone off by tomorrow and it can be removed to the basement.