The 'E' Type Forum

Having trawled through so much info on bonnets, Chuck at MM says he won’t touch an aftermarket bonnet or have one in his shop.

So how would you be able to tell if some, any or all the parts on your bonnet are original, reproduction, new old stock or patten parts.

My bonnet alignment has always been shocking and I’ve got to the stage it can’t be ignored forever, I’ve now opened an enormous can of worms.

Very difficult to know if your not the original owner....take it to a specialist like Hutsons for them to fit and replace whatever is needed.....if your not a bodywork guy then you will spend a long time working on it....Steve

This topic covers what we know about bonnet originality: viewtopic.php?p=137169#p137169

David that only appears to focus on the significance of very early bonnets. That can’t be all the knowledge.
I was hoping there may be others tales of woe.

Not sure what more you were expecting! The same tooling was used for the 3.8 cars but as those tools wore out the panels gradually changed shape. So a new repair wing from Jaguar in 1965 would not be a good fit on an original bonnet without fettling.

You can be fairly sure the bonnet is original if it still has the body number on the o/s bonnet strengthener, but no guarantee:

I’m fairly sure my bonnet isn’t original hence looking to decipher what I’m trying to make a silk purse out of.

It’s like a manual that says reassembly is the reverse of removal, not helpful if it was assembled incorrectly by the last ape.

I’m not fortunate enough to have bought an unmolested original car, just one that’s been restored at a previous time by someone well meaning and fond of the phrase “that’ll do”

Your comments resemble my second E-type, though it was drivable and nominally presentable. Everything that had been done to that car (body/paint/mechanicals) had been done poorly and/or very much on the cheap. I finally sold it out of frustration and purchased another that had been unused for a decade+, but was largely unmolested, and importantly had no body/paint issues with which to contend. Took me about 15 months to get #3 in fine running fettle, but saved me years of effort that #2 would have taken to turn it into a reliable and presentable 'driver'.

Mine has always been very drivable but far far from presentable, fortunately for me it’s not rusty.

I’ve discovered the root cause of my bonnet alignment issues, but unfortunately previous attempts of putting a square peg into a round hole need me to address multiple issues. Not least of which will be adding some extra metal to the rear of the bonnet.

Maybee you should post photos of your problem....some may be able to help..eg there are hinge extensions available....Steve

I’m not sure how you think that helps answer my question. And hinge extensions are just a bodge to get round a different problem.

I can’t find any decent pictures of the air tubes and their fitting and position to the front of the bonnet.

It’s really easy to identify pattern, original or heritage parts and original parts on other British makes, but it apparently not on an e type unless it’s got a stamp

I was asking you to post photos showing your bonnet problems.....you said you needed to add metal at the rear.....I know that some have used the hinges to solve rear bonnet gaps....it not the only solution.....but haveing no idea of what your problems are its almost impossible for anyone to help....Steve

Is this an original or copy part.

Assessing whether a bonnet panel is original or not is pretty much impossible. Maybe someone who restores E type bodywork for a living might hazard a guess as to provenance, but they're not stamped nor have ID marks for us mere mortals.

It's all very well for Chuck, who has a very good reputation where panel work is concerned, to say things like that, but he can actually make his own repair sections and panels, and again most of us don't have access to that.

Over about 15 years I was involved in ground up restorations of maybe 15 or 20 E Types. All of our panel work was done by one guy throughout that period.

Wherever possible he would repair original panels. If not, we sometimes could supply second hand panels (often rejects from previous repairs). When we couldn't do that we bought panels new, and by and large he did a good job of fitting them, and hated every minute of it. The curvature of the repro wings was a particular problem.

As per David above the panel dies themselves changed shape over time at Jaguar, so early and later cars with original panels had subtle differences.

Modern repros have to be copied from something, and that one panel might suit one car and not the other. In our experience the Martin Robey panels were usually a better fit than the cheaper panels that seemed to come at the time from Eastern Europe.

In any event the only thing you can do is make your bonnet fit your car. This involves pulling the whole thing to bits, measuring up your body and chassis rails (another source of error) and them making the panels fit any way you can. I've seen new centre sections need to be trimmed an inch at the back, or alternatively have an extra inch welded in there to make it fit.

Unfortunately it's par for the course.

Original paint would be a good indication that it is an original part to the car.....the bonnets were assembled then painted.......Steve

The captive nuts at the bottom show its original in my thinking, I have not been able to find a source of those captive nut plates though that doesn't mean they don't exist somewhere.
But in addition the spot welding that fixes them in place appears to have been made with a 4 electrode spot welder as they are consistently spaced which is not something you could easily achieve, also the size of the spot welds would make me think its original, or at least as original as mine.
Regards
Tony