Bonnet conversion SE

[macky17]

OK I'll explain here what a couple of you already know:

Allan charges an extra £200 to travel any real distance in addition to the (very reasonable) £295 basic cost (+£95 for gas struts). If there's more than one car he discounts £50 per person - i.e. youre all still paying an extra £150 each. With that in mind, the luxury of staying put and having him work on my own drive seems worth £50. Some of you may feel it's worth grouping together for the saving but I think I'll go it alone. Note: Allan insists on a private driveway and access to a garage.

Of course travelling to him is the cheapest option but I don't fancy 8+ hours driving and an extra 500+ miles on the odometer. Weather becomes a gamble too.

Edited by macky17 on Saturday 22 April 20:40

[Mr.T]

Weather is not a problem, Alan has a better garage than any private individual I know. Your P&J will not get wet!.
I certainly believe that when he did mine, going to Alan was by far the best option - he has every tool in the box, and regardless of any issue that could arise, it's all there, every eventuality can be taken care of........but if saving £50 - £150 at the expense of keeping 500-800 miles of the odometer, that's your call and all down to individual choice.

[TUS 2 CON]

macky17 said:

OK I'll explain here what a couple of you already know:

Allan charges an extra £200 to travel any real distance in addition to the (very reasonable) £295 basic cost (+£95 for gas struts). If there's more than one car he discounts £50 per person - i.e. youre all still paying an extra £150 each. With that in mind, the luxury of staying put and having him work on my own drive seems worth £50. Some of you may feel it's worth grouping together for the saving but I think I'll go it alone. Note: Allan insists on a private driveway and access to a garage.

Of course travelling to him is the cheapest option but I don't fancy 8+ hours driving and an extra 500+ miles on the odometer. Weather becomes a gamble too.

Edited by macky17 on Saturday 22 April 20:40

This is what put me off - if there are 3 of you in the same location, together you still have to pay him an extra £450 for travel expenses. Seems a bit over the top to me.

[allan howell]

Hi Guy's I just thought I'd chip in here, If you came to me for your conversion which would cost a very cheap £295 and I've done loads so I know what I'm doing as It's not an easy conversion cos if something were to go wrong when you are cutting the front edge off your large Bonnet to buy a new one is around £1500, The other things are that to come to me you would have to take a day off work, You would have the wear & Tear on your car plus you would have the fuel to put in yourself, If I come to you all that is down to me, If I'm traveling 600 miles in a day and doing a conversion it takes it out of you especially when your 70 like me so I would only get one done on the day I come down I would then stay at a Premier Inn over night at a cost of around £80 and do the other one or possibly two the next day, There is also traveling to the other owners which are never close to each other, So you can see that the price I charge for you to have the best job you can have is not as expensive as you make out, I suppose It depends on how much you love your car, With it being Major surgery on your car you want someone that knows what they are doing, Enough said, Allan

[macky17]

I agree Allan. If I came to you I'd spend £120 on fuel. You come here I'm only £80 worse off then, not £200, and I save 8+ boring motorway hours behind the wheel, 500 miles wear and tear and I'm free to get on with my day. No brainer from where I'm sitting.

Look forward to meeting you (emailed back last night).

[stlol]

I ordered the kit from Allan recently, fitted it last weekend and I’m really pleased with the results. I had help from a good friend which made things a lot easier, if you are deliberating in doing this then don’t, it’s quite easy if you’re handy with spanners and a bit of common sense.

[stlol]

[stlol]

[Niftynoo]

That's a nice colour blue, similar to my Halcyon Atlantis, just a little lighter.

[Blatmeister]

Hi chaps. Just in case you're interested I fitted one of Alan's conversions myself but used gas struts instead of static uprights. The conversion was reasonably straight forward and gave me an ideal opportunity to also perfect the bonnet shut lines which were not particularly good to start with. The gas struts enable easy access to the engine compartment and also make opening the bonnet much easier too. I made some adjustments to the service bonnet stay to also enable the service bonnet to open wider thus helping the main bonnet to open wider too.
Once the hinges were fitted and the bonnet edge removed the main challenge was to position the gas struts correctly so that they could compress properly and to get them operating without too much compression. This was very much a trial period which required the struts to be regassed to get the right pressure. I now have the perfect compression which keeps the bonnet up whilst not exerting undue stress on the bonnet when you close it.
Alan was extremely helpful all the way through as was SGS who supplied my struts.
I'm happy to provide photos if there is interest.
Cheers
Andrew

[Blatmeister]

..........forgot to mention I reinforced the lower bonnet area where the ball joint/ hinge mechanism is secured. It wasn't difficult needing only a moulded steel plate plus some fibreglass matting.

[Blatmeister]

.......here we go with some photos

[Blatmeister]

[Blatmeister]

[Blatmeister]

[Blatmeister]

[Blatmeister]

[3gadgriff]

Allan came and fitted the conversion to my Tuscan today. Great guy top job.


Sorry about the rubbish photos. Time to start cleaning up that engine bay.