Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Bonnet Stays

Hi Geof

I used A2 stainless dome nuts from Toolstation - item no 94881.

£1.28 buys you a packet of 10.

Check 'em out.

Yes I came to the same intuitive conclusion. Just finished the stays on mine, now need to mount them and make up the top brackets to support ball part of joint. Then a couple more short plates to support terry clips to stow stays.

Yes, much better idea...the Wolf had better watch out!
May I also suggest that a rubber grommet is slid over the the rod, close to the top end so that if the rod happens to slip out of the hand, it will not damage paintwork on the wing.

Hi Rob,

I am probably coming to this topic too late for you.

Roadster 100 Associate member Steve Pickering, owner of .Leengate Valves, makes Stainless Steel Bonnet Props, a set of which I have fitted on our Roadster 100.

The Rod has a Hand Screwed Nut at the top which fits to the bracket on the bonnet - no pulling about to attach or detach and no chance of the Bonnet Flying Off of the prop....

The link below is to my own story..... https://sites.google.com/site/mymor...-of-member-steve-pickerings-bonnet-props

mailto:steve@leengatevalves.co.uk

Frank

Hi Frank

Thank you for a very interesting article and suggestions and thanks to all for the other suggestions on the thread too!

I actually had the Wolf stays on order form last May until recently when they became unavailable. If Id had known that they would become unavailable months ago I may well have had a go at making my own or buying elsewhere as yourself and other have done. I did however find out that Williams had Wolf stays in stock so after waiting several months I bit the bullet and ordered Wolf stays from Williams.

I have to say I am very pleased with The Wolf stays though I didn't have the satisfaction of making my own at a fraction of the cost!

Rob

Emboldened by this thread, I decided to make my own as well. After various iterations I went for 6mm fittings with female thread spherical joints at the bottom and q/r spring loaded ball joints at the top, both obtained from Bearing Boys and connected with 6mm satin finish aluminium rod from Screwfix. This would minimise fabrication and just require male threads cutting on each end of rod.





Nearside as above, was relatively easy using factory drilled 6mm clearance hole in lower rear catch and carefully fabricated bracket from 2 x 15mm flat aluminium (also from Screwfix) onto top fixing of upper bonnet catch (half nut used to accomodate bracket with clearance for spring). Note that spring loaded ball joint socket not only allows direct attachment to male thread on stay but offers more natural up/down attach/release.

That was the easy bit though



As can be seen the 3.7 V6 Roadster is seemingly unique among the Classics in having a footwell side cavity to accomodate right hand side of foot for throttle operation, almost to full width of bulkhead. Presumably this because pedal box is offset to accomodate the bulky 6 speed Mustang gearbox. This leaves little space to mount lower rear bonnet catch, which as can be seen is attached to outside of cavity into rivnuts. This in turn precludes mounting of stay pivot to inside of catch as with other models. My solution was to fix lower joint to side of cavity in front of lower catch, using penny washers to spread load and dome head bolt from inside so no nasty edges for foot to catch on. Slight lack of symmetry with n/s but I had cut stays with longer threads and locknuts to allow a small amount of length adjustment.

Then another hurdle. Lack of clearance with cavity when bonnet was closed meant I couldn't use a bracket attached to upper bonnet catch fixing as with n/s. Bit more head scratching and research revealed that an alternative upper attachment could employ one of the two lower spring catch fittings. Not the more forward one since that would foul lower stay mount, but the rear fitting looked like an option. Plasticine revealed there was adequate clearance if I kept bracket small enough.



This was result. Had to trim fabricated bracket a tad to allow smooth action of spring loaded catch slider but eventually it all came together.



Finally stay clips to stow made from 3mm stock. Took the opportunity to replace all the wing mount screws with stainless (most M5 dome socket x 12mm into rivnuts) noting some were little more than finger tight!

Lovely job there Richard 👍🏻🍾

Great engineering and write up Richard. I feel a bit of a cheat buying ready made stays now!

Thanks Rob and John. Don't think I saved any money over ready made ones, assuming they are even available for this model, but still have materials left over plus a set of dies. Great feeling of achievment as well of course.

Nice work Richard