Cutting hole in bonnet

[SHOSLR]

Originally Posted by greenhj

i use a tape measure to work out roughly the centre of the carb while the bonnet is still on the car, make sure the panel is good for alignment now, rather than when you cut a tight fitting hole and realise it wont fit where you want it to.

-Remove bonnet and belt a 50mm holesaw through the centre mark and refit bonnet, hopefully the 50mm hole is "close enough" to be able to see the carb stud hole without all the pressure of being spot on with the tape.

-fit carb stud long enough to be higher than the bonnet

-use string wrapped around stud and a texta to draw the circle size you need

-tape the **** of the bonnet and cut with a jigsaw.

for a square hole its a similar deal, but using the stud for reference and a steel rule instead.

The jigsaw happily cut through the bracing and bonnet (already painted) of my HJ, and the tape stops the jigsaw pad marking the paint, or any swarf scratching it up.

cheers pal.
i didnt end up needing to cut hole in the bonnet. some how the filter managed to clear the underside of teh bonnet by about 4mm. *bloody close but fits*
i prefure not to cut a hole if i can get away with it, but i need to cut hole in my torana bonnet and that is fully painted
with the cut edge after the hole is the right size, what do you do to seal it so the bare metal edge doesnt rust??
on a already painted bonnet, its pretty hard to touch up the cut edge and still make it look good????

[greenhj]

in the past ive taped the edge top and bottom and just used a fine brush to put some colour on the bare steel.

My car doesnt see rain so i skipped the above step, but to tidy up the cut edge, dont get talked into using ugly as hell pinchweld, go to clark rubber and get a nice rubber profile in the shape of a "U" (same as pinchweld i suppose) but you can get a nice narrow piece and if ive got the right glue ill use it, otherwise a few small blobs of silicon will hold it down.

[Lilmix]

How can I work out how far below my bonnet my air cleaner sits?

[Lilmix]

Originally Posted by Lilmix

How can I work out how far below my bonnet my air cleaner sits?

Any ideas?

[TUF 253]

yeah mate try putting a big blob of blu tac on the air cleaner where it will be closest which is usually the front then close the bonnet and open it again, the thickness of the squashed blu tac should give you your clearance

[Lilmix]

Thanks for that, it sounds so easy, I'm kicking myself for not thinkg of it earlier...

[Jake]

Originally Posted by TUF 253

yeah mate try putting a big blob of blu tac on the air cleaner where it will be closest which is usually the front then close the bonnet and open it again, the thickness of the squashed blu tac should give you your clearance

Or an old extendable car radio aerial taped to the manifold just in front of the filter then close the bonnet and see where it collapses to.