FD Bonnet

[Tintin]

ust a quickie , is the FD bonnet made of steel , ali or other

[J.j.]

Ali I believe    

[Carl]

It is Ally.
Regards
Carl

[Tintin]

bugger thats what I thought , how am I going to fix a steel plate to the underneathe of the bonnet ?

Not going to go into too many details but this is what I need to achevie , I need to fix a plate on the underside of my bonnet that has fixing on it for a few secret items . the origional idea was to weld nuts to the back of a steel plate and then weld that to the bonnet , however I beleive you can\'t weld steel to ali and you can\'t get ali nuts , needs to be a decent fixing so tapping the ali plate might not do it

Any ideas , need to overcome this little problem or my project is flat on its arse

[Tintin]

Right it looks like I have been mis informed , it looks like you can get ali nuts so it looks like all systems go again

Just want to check my idea is going to work as I no next to nothing about welding

the idea is to fix everything in place on the ali plates then weld the nuts in situ , unbolt everything and have the plate welded to the bonnet , then spray it all up and bolt the toys back on

Can anyone see a flaw in this plan and has anybody got a spare bonnet for sale

[shaunwil]

You can get Alloy weld studs, they have a thread on them already and the stud is spot welded direct to the material. Or you could just have some alloy bar threaded and welded onto the bonnet.....

Or you could drill some 6.5mm holes into the braces and put some M4 rivet nuts into the bolt in positions and then use them as mounting points.

Shaun

[shaunwil]

The only other thing is just how hot is it under the engine It gets damn hot when you lift the bonnet after a run !!!!

Shaun

[Tintin]

Cheers

The reason I wanted to fix everything onto a plate is so I can build it all up and test it without it being on the bonnet , bolting the plate to the bracing bars might be a good idea , that way I can build it all on steel plate and bolt it on after

were can you get rivet nuts from and do they do different sizes , M4 might be a bit small , thinking more like M6

[Tintin]

Good news

I\'ve found a few places that do rivet nuts and other similar things and I\'ve managed to get myself a bonnet , all systems go

[shaunwil]

You need a hand gun as well. The rivet is wound onto the end of the gun and then pulled up into the hole.

http://www.enfasco.com/frame4.htm

You can get a gun that does it all by hand. Do a test hole in a plate off the bonnet before committing yourself.

What are you mounting they do m6 in round nutserts but the hole is usually 9.1mm diameter.

Shaun

[Tintin]

I did a bit of lookig round on the tinternet yesterday , saw that site , figured I\'d be able to use a cordless with bit of threaded rod in the chuck to fix them

Got a new problem now , ali and steel don\'t mix very well , I\'ve been told that the ali will cause the steel to rust , thought that using zinc plated rivet nuts may stop this but I\'ve been told it wont and you need to isolate the ali from the steel to stop the reaction , there has to be a way of securely fixing ali to steel . If the bonnet is ali I\'m guessing the rest of the car is ali or there has to be way of fixing one to the other and even if the rest of the body is ali surely the chassis can\'t be , would paint isolate one from the other ?

Someone on here must know about this sort of thing , I NEED GUIDENCE  :3Confused

Don\'t want to say too much about this project in public but it will ( i hope ) by really cool and one of a kind , hoping to show it off at rotorstock

if I cant find a way of fixing the steel to the bonnet then I\'m back using ali plate with ali nuts , just not sure how strong they\'ll be though , suppose I could get some and see how easy they are to strip

[shaunwil]

Its called galvanic reation and both the steel and the ali will react with each other. You should find that the paint between the two parts should prevent the problems. You could always get the steel parts powdercoated to completely seal them and that will reduce the risk of a problem. The rivet nuts are plated or made from brass so that should help with the reduction in reaction. I wouldn\'t use ali bolts though. Its more the heat from the engine that will help the reaction along, it may not be a problem but it is hard to say.

Your probably worring too much about it !

If you want any more engineering info you can pm me to keep it from public eyes, i may be able to advise !

Shaun