Under bonnet colours

Demetris

Well-Known Member
This afternoon i removed the bonnet in order to clean, paint, refurbish everything underneath, and i am wondering what were the original colours of the hinges and locking pin and catch. Unfortunately all the period brochures don't really show these areas, while the James Taylor's book isn't really helpful either.
I have managed to find an interesting photo in my archive of a car that appears to be original. It looks as if the hinges were simply galvanised/passivated and just became dull with age. Probably this is also true for the locking pin and catch, even though i cannot verify this.
So, does anyone remember how the underside of the bonnet looked when the cars were new? I am not really a perfectionist, and my car is already far from original, but there you go, some times these details look wrong in my eyes.
 
It looks as if the hinges were simply galvanised/passivated and just became dull with age. Probably this is also true for the locking pin and catch, even though i cannot verify this.

I'd say you were right. The safety catch may have been painted black though. It's the thing I used all the time opening bonnets, but never looked at until one was stiff allowing the bonnet to fly open...
 
Thanks for the verification Harvey.
Perhaps the underside of the bonnets was painted with the safety catch already bolted in place, this is why it ended up being black.
 
Neither the safety latch or the hingers were painted. But I also don't think they are galvanized, I'm pretty sure it's some flavour of cadmium plating. I have half a set of NOS hinges, and a NOS hood catch, and both are silver grey without any sign of zinc spankle. Now they could also be a zinc chromate, but if so it's clear chromate without any dye (i.e. the gold wash you see these days).

Yours
Vern
 
In the case of my Rover, which I have been with since 1978 albeit at that time only as a child, the hinges and the safety catch were never painted. I will have a close look at the hinges and report back, but my feeling is that they did have some sort of zinc plating.

Ron.
 
OK, I have removed layers and layers of paint from my hinges, and they look indeed to had some sort of zinc plating. Actually the plating has lasted quite well all those years and i wonder what to do to retain the original look (apart from obviously having them re-plated!).
On a different note, the bonnet stay rod was attached to the bonnet with an assortment of spacers (one nylon that looks as if it was from a broken dynamo strap, and the other a flanged nut) and a split pin through an "ear" welded to the bonnet frame. Although it works, i started to hate the way it looks, so can anyone enlighten me on how this should be from the factory?
 
Cadmium plate is yellow with like a rainbow/oily effect in places.
Cadmium plate can be many colours depending on which chromate treatment they use. Same with zinc for that matter. The reason I say the parts have cad plating is that it's a better material than zinc and was more common than zinc in the era of these cars before cadmium toxicity became a concern.

Yours
Vern
 
Hinges I am not sure about but the lower part of the hinge bracket that is attached to the hinges that bolts directly onto the car rots like anything if left without protection
 
Back
Top