Bonnet Rams Part 1

I didn't like the standard bonnet stay that keeps the bonnet open, they look a tad agricultural so I ordered a couple of  Gas pistons. These exert a lot of pressure and the inner wing area needs strengthened in order for these to be fitted.
First off was to get some 30mm alloy angle which has a 3mm wall thickness, A 300mm strip was cut for each side of the car. The alloy completely went up behind the passenger side but needed about 7mm trimmed of the drivers side.
A hole was drilled 150mm along each bar and tapped for M8 which is the thread on the piston rams. They are now ready to be installed. I mixed up some fiber repair paste and slid the angle up the back of the inner wing and held it in place with the end of the ram.

And now with the bracket bonded into place 

The bottom joint of the Piston ram is basically directly above the Black anti roll bar. 

The next stage is to make a bracket for the upper part of the ram. The position of the bracket is gained by having the ram connected to its bottom mounting place then compressing the ram fully while horizontal with the inner wing then mark the spot on the wing. Next close the bonnet and mark the bonnet where it meets the mark on the inner wing.

When making up the bracket the piston needs to be down the bracket a around 20mm or the ram body will foul when closing as I found out with the first bracket that was made.

I made the bracket 125mm long as the bonnet inner skin is not that thick for the force of the ram and used 4 fastening points. The vertical part of the bracket is 35mm and the 8mm hole drilled at 28mm down.

Bracket then set up against the bonnet and the holes marked, drilled and some light alloy rivnuts inserted as self tappers would be useless.

There is one other hole in the pic above but that was for the old type stay and not used now.

Bracket bolted into place for trail fit., Needs removed again to clean up the edges and generally finish it off and paint it black before final install. Still have the other side to do but that's for another day.