Bonnet and first gel coat

Today I fixed the bonnet. Sounds easy. Just two hinges fixed by four bolts. 

Bonnet hinge from inside engine bay

However, it took a lot of fiddling to get the shut lines the same all round. The hinges needed bending and I enlarged the holes on the hinges by 2mm to allow for minor adjustment. But it was well worth the time.

Consistent shut lines

There were a lot of small indentations, pin holes and marks on the body after rubbing down. So I tackled the gel coat for the first time. First I identified every mark with tape, where some gel coat was needed. This was to make sure that I touched up all the areas required. I had been told that the mix was 3% of the activator to 97% of the gel coat. Then I mixed the gel coat and activator, using a syringe from childrens Calpol to measure out the small quantity of activator.

Difficult to see the imperfections from the photo, but they are there - honest.

Areas that were relatively flat were rubbed down with P400 wet or dry paper. I covered some with cling film and left some others exposed to test if it made a difference. I have heard stories of the gel not setting, however the weather in these cases was cold. It is over 20 deg C today, so we will find out if the mix is ok and whether cling film makes a difference.