Opinion Please - Painting Fibre Glass Bonnet

As some of you know there was a group buy of fibre glass bonnets, of which I'm a happy(ish) owner of one.

To clarify that, the quality of the AutoDS bonnets is excellent, to me it looks like what an OEM bonnet would be like if it was made in Fibre Glass, however we all had a few issues with damage during delivery.

Anyway, thats not my question. I intended to paint the bonnet the same colour as the car, that is Speed Red 168 (often called Wine Red).

Speaking to my paint shop, the guy said that he will need to apply quite an amount of paint for this colour to look good and as the whole point of the bonnet is to remove weight, adding a couple of kilos of primer and paint seems to be counter!

So an option is to paint the centre of the bonnet black (preferably matt black) thats effectively between the headlights and the rest the original car colour.

Apparently Matt Black paint covers well and can be kept quite thin - no idea, anyone care to comment?

So I'm not sure how chavey this is?

This is sort of what it might look like (not yellow obviously)

Thanks in advance

Regards

Sg

Each to there own!
Not my cup of tea but if it was for weight saving can you not just put a wrap film over it?

Even if you were to paint the whole thing red, I still think its a whole lot lighter than the original bonnet. If it was me, i would rather add weight than go with a black centre.

I can only agree with what's been said, however, too late now, but during manufacture I would have looked into the possibility of adding colour to the resin, this would've been beneficial in the long run. Just my thoughts.

According to the other glass fibre bonnet thread in styling the weight saving is in the region of 20kgs and so it's unlikely that you are going to apply that much weight when repainting. I'd happily sacrifice a kilo or two of extra weight to get it to match the rest of the car.

Paint it red and drive naked.

Definitely paint it red and treat yourself by moving the battery in to the boot to help!

Look forward to seeing the pics.

What of me naked

Okay but i won’t be held responsible for the repercussions!!

Seems the vote so far is full Red!
Fair enough I am simply a humble servant of your opinions, full Speed Red 168 it shall be!

Thanks for your views

Regards

I had mine painted last year,I think mine was winner red metallic.

It looks great. No great difference in the weight before and after.

Mine has aero catches and no headlights or sound proofing. So very light in comparison to some.

Now got the painted bonnet and wings back, will be fitted in the next few weeks

Here is a link to picture I took yesterday morning. The right hand wing is the original steel unit, the other two are vented Fibre Glass ones again from AutoDS

The finish on both the wings and bonnet is pretty good, we’ve not flattened the fibre glass just primed and painted, and apart from the odd pin prick type flaw in the bonnet (and you have to be quite picky) it’s very good.

My painter said it’s probably one of the best fibre glass bonnets he’s seen both from construction and quality finish. I should point out he was also working on a TVR in his workshop, I won’t detail here what he thought about the fibre glass quality of that!

I’ll post pictures when all fitted in due course

Sg

Thanks for the update SG< the paint looks very good. I"d be interested to hear if you think your Coupe changes with 20kgs of weight removed from the front.

That bonnet looks great - I'd really like one. My bonnet needs to be painted anyway.

As Gunzi says it will interesting to have your thoughts on how it drives with the weight saving.

Hi Guys

Will let you know how it feels, though i’ve also moved the battery and washer bottle to the boot so the front end weight loss won’t be just bonnet alone.

I really should create a project thread to share what I’ve been up to

Regards

Sg

Sg a project thread would be great, sounds like you’ve been busy!

That looks great. Haven't even unpacked mine yet, it is still where we left it. Was hoping to make progress on the car this weekend but the weather put paid to that!

Andy,

Shame on you - but you do have the toilet to work on first!!!

Chris, I'll pull my finger out and start a project thread.

I've had a load of the crusty metal work powder coated, so I'll get that detailed also (collect it next week) and I'm busy rewrapping the looms and tidying up the engine bay paint work.

Now I've moved the battery, I'm relocating the fan relays to where the battery was, including the EBV (though I think Leighton will be replacing that soon), so this makes the whole space quite nice and with the washer bottle removed, its amazing the area it free's up.

Sg

New floor going down in the toilet tomorrow, once that and a couple of other jobs are done I can start on the car. Got to get it ready for practice day on the 25th so need good weather. Bonnet may have to wait until first or second event for its debut!

Looks great. Giving the Coupe the "TVR" fibreglass treatment !

V8 engine next?

So thoughts on significant weight loss.

Unfortunately I've made so many changes (all at once) its now difficult to be objective about the value of the fibreglass bonnet.

But with all the changes, bonnet, wings, aircon, battery, washer bottle I reakon I've lost ~80-100k in weight at the front - possibly more (the BC coilovers are signifcantly ligher than the stock struts/springs).

How does this affect things, well turn in does seem a tad better, but the car now is super quick. A friend has an AMG C63 and lets just say Barry is now quicker to 100mph than the AMG!!

would I recommend the fibre glass bonnet - well for a day-to-day car no - its far to much shag and I really can't see the value. For a car where you want optimum performance and most of that track (or Hill Climb) focussed then any loss of weight is valuable and in which case I would recommend (its still a fair shag' mind).

I will get Barry to a meet-up at some point and hopefully offer the opportunity for some of you to judge for yourselves, unless you are coming to Spa in October

Sg

Barry the Coupe - best name to date

Would love to see you at a meet Godders - would you be able to make Festival Italia on Sunday at Brands Hatch?

Unfortunately I couldn't Chris had to go away on Business on Sunday, but it is my intention when time allows to get to a meet and chew the proverbial Coupe fat/could.

I'm having quite a lot of fun doing this, but am cursed with a fairly busy job and all I've seemed to have done is piled more time pressure with this Fiat Coupe trackday shenanigans on myself

Regards

You'll be pleased to know (I hope) that I have made a start on my bonnet finally. Got it flatted down ready to prime and paint but each time I've gone out to put some primer on it's rained! Won't be on for this weekends hillclimb but hopefully will be done for the final event of the season mid-September.

The paint sprayer round the corner from joes did a very good job on my fibre glass wine red Bonett.

Andy,

I've fallen off my chair

By the way, to attach the headlamp wiring I used bulkhead cable ties, does a neat job - picture on Joes site in the Barry album if you want a look!

Also, I got some standard gas struts (from Joe), they do a "reasonable" job holding the bonnet up - not full extension, but if you have gas struts with too much oomph, it pushes the radius of the bonnet out (apparently).

Sg