Extending or extended bonnet stay
Discussion
I have a suitably sized piece of wood I use as a wedge for working on the car.
Id never rely on the Bonnet stay and it’s a very heavy old thing that bonnet. I open the bonnet fully to almost upright then wedge the wood between it and the top chassis box rail with a rag.
I think a chap on the Facebook Cerb group does longer better bonnet stays that fit our cars. Maybe ask on there if you want a fit and forget solution.
Nice too
Id never rely on the Bonnet stay and it’s a very heavy old thing that bonnet. I open the bonnet fully to almost upright then wedge the wood between it and the top chassis box rail with a rag.
I think a chap on the Facebook Cerb group does longer better bonnet stays that fit our cars. Maybe ask on there if you want a fit and forget solution.
Nice too
Belle427 said:
No offence to the maker of those longer props but I found them a waste of time for extra room.
That was my problem. I never bought one, I just propped up the bonnet to the height that the extended props would give and found no actual usable access benefit. Perhaps they work for the Cerb bonnet but not for the Chim
I keep getting requests for me to make some of my extending props. I don't want to do this but I can explain how I made it
What I did was to measure the diameter of the existing prop but I didn't use it for the extended prop because it is made of aluminium alloy which would scrape and jam inside a stainless steel tube. I bought a solid stainless steel round bar the same length and diameter as the original prop and a length of stainless steel tube with inside diameter suitable to allow the solid bar to slide inside, this was cut shorter so that, when in the down position it didn’t reach the inner wing clip and allowed the solid bar to be exposed at the inner wing clip, both bought from from ebay. I threaded both ends of the solid bar to fit the old ball cups. If you don't own thread cutting equipment, any garage would do this for you. I then cut one end off the solid bar sufficient to insert and fix to the bottom of the tube, I drilled and pinned this to fix the bottom cup in place. Now I could slide the two pieces together and attach to the car. The clip that fixes the two halves is more difficult but it doesn't need to be. It is simply a pin that fits through a hole drilled at the top of the tube. Let the prop drop to its lowest point and drill through both tube and bar so that a pin can be inserted to lock them together. Then lift the bonnet to the chosen extended position and drill again so that the pin has two location points on the bar
ETA
Solid bar is 8mm diameter, 860mm long (threaded both ends then 40mm then cut from one end to form the fixed bottom end)
Tube is 12mm OD with 1.5mm wall giving 1mm clearance, 700mm long
An R-pin can be used to lock the prop together
What I did was to measure the diameter of the existing prop but I didn't use it for the extended prop because it is made of aluminium alloy which would scrape and jam inside a stainless steel tube. I bought a solid stainless steel round bar the same length and diameter as the original prop and a length of stainless steel tube with inside diameter suitable to allow the solid bar to slide inside, this was cut shorter so that, when in the down position it didn’t reach the inner wing clip and allowed the solid bar to be exposed at the inner wing clip, both bought from from ebay. I threaded both ends of the solid bar to fit the old ball cups. If you don't own thread cutting equipment, any garage would do this for you. I then cut one end off the solid bar sufficient to insert and fix to the bottom of the tube, I drilled and pinned this to fix the bottom cup in place. Now I could slide the two pieces together and attach to the car. The clip that fixes the two halves is more difficult but it doesn't need to be. It is simply a pin that fits through a hole drilled at the top of the tube. Let the prop drop to its lowest point and drill through both tube and bar so that a pin can be inserted to lock them together. Then lift the bonnet to the chosen extended position and drill again so that the pin has two location points on the bar
ETA
Solid bar is 8mm diameter, 860mm long (threaded both ends then 40mm then cut from one end to form the fixed bottom end)
Tube is 12mm OD with 1.5mm wall giving 1mm clearance, 700mm long
An R-pin can be used to lock the prop together
Edited by bobfather on Monday 2nd May 11:18
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