Bonnet handles in place of locks ☹️

I wanted to keep clean lines on the Cobra, so I fitted low profile locks on the bonnet, rather than the traditional locking handles. I felt that my car would look better without the handles and still do. However, from a purely practical point of view, the low profile locks make the bonnet difficult to open. The handles do address this issue.

So I splashed out nearly £120 to address the practicality and thereby sacrificed the looks. I bought a set of handles and locking cams from Europa Spares - a benefit is that the bonnet and boot keys are the same. The four M4 raised head machine screws used to fix the handles came from Kayfast.

The existing locks were removed from the bonnet and the new handles were checked for fit. The existing holes were about 2mm bigger than required and had been squared off for the existing locks, but each hole will be covered completely by the handle fixing plate.

The locating pins on the handle fixing plate were removed, as these and the fixing holes were right next to each other, so would have weakened the fixing point. The underside of the fixing plate were then lightly filed to remove the excess metal left after cutting.

Locating pins removed from inner side of each hole on each fixing plate

The two fixing holes on each fixing plate were marked next to the existing holes, before drilling 4.5mm holes through the bonnet.

Two 4.5mm holes drilled each side of existing hole

The handles were temporarily fitted to the bonnet.

Raised head machine screws used to secure fixing plate

The cams were fitted so that the top edge was the same distance from the bonnet as the top of the locating slot.

Locating slot with escutcheon around it

They were then thinned slightly on the bench grinder so that they located in the bulkhead slots. This was a time consuming and faffy job!

Curved surface of cam thinned down 

Once fitted correctly, the machine screws were secured on the underside with nylon nuts and washers.

Bonnet handles fitted in place of locks (a shame)

The boot handle was a straight swap (apart from shortening the square bar) and it looks exactly the same.