mx5cartalk.com

Tools needed: Dremel, drill, allen key set, painters tape
Time taken: 2hrs with plenty of stuffing about
Difficulty: Not very hard technically, just be careful when cutting, CF cracks easily.


Mount the pin itself
I didn't take an photos of this stage but you'll quickly find somewhere for it to go and figure out how it works. Start off with it sitting higher than you'll need so you can mark on the underside of the bonnet where you'll need to drill the hole in the next stage.

Drill a hole in the bonnet...
I found starting from the underside and drilling up much easier to get the hole in the right spot. Start with a smaller bit and slowly work your way up, cracking carbon fibre is bad.




Mask up and draw around (I had a template)...






Very careful cutting...




Test fitting the mechanism…
It's at this point that you'll need to readjust the height of the pin so that it will actually sit in the mechanism.




Drill the bolt holes to mount the mechanism to the bonnet…




Bolt it in to place...




And we’re done for the day.

You're brave cutting a CF bonnet.

I wasn't overly keen on it myself but all the shops I spoke to either said "we'll have a go but because we can't vouch for the quality of the bonnet, if we break it we're not paying for it" or "we've never touched CF before but can't be that hard can it?". Really wasn't interested in the first group and wasn't so keen on the second, so I spoke to a few others who had done their own and got the same response from all of them, "its not that hard, just be careful".

looks good, what made you decide to run bonnet pins?

Zi suggested it originally when I bought the bonnet off him and I just ran with it from there I guess. I'm sure I could come up with a million reasons like CAMS requirements, other people running the same bonnet had done the same, good old rice, etc; but I think it ultimately came down to it was $100 extra for the pins and why the hell not. Extra safety is good, right?

Did you ever consider it for yours mxhevn?

Jeo wrote:Zi suggested it originally when I bought the bonnet off him and I just ran with it from there I guess. I'm sure I could come up with a million reasons like CAMS requirements, other people running the same bonnet had done the same, good old rice, etc; but I think it ultimately came down to it was $100 extra for the pins and why the hell not. Extra safety is good, right?

Did you ever consider it for yours mxhevn?

I have, hell i still am, but i dont want to hack into the bonnet as it would affect resale. I'm not at the point where its a must yet anyway.