Hi all

Today I was adjusting my bonnet to fender gaps. was able to correct most of the gaps with adjusting the bonnet stops and arising the latch mechanisms upwards. The passenger side still needs to be raised some.
I am out of travel on the passenger side. So my next thought was to take the loop that is mounted to the bonnet and make it longer? Their is one adjusting nut and it seems very tight I did not want to force it.
My question are these loops even adjustable? to make loner or shorter. unhinged do you know?

Thanks for your help!

 

I have also done a lot of bonnet adjusting but I have no idea what you mean by a "loop" mounted to the bonnet with one adjusting nut, and that is after inspecting the underside of the bonnet for 5 minutes just now.
Could you post a pic of the part/area/"loop"/adjusting nut you are talking about?

 

They're talking about the latch loop. Tightening that loop is counter intuitive. Turn the nut clockwise to loosen and counterclockwise tighten it.

 

Gotcha!

 

The problem with lengthening that loop (by turning the nut clockwise)is that the bonnet will start rattling over rough road surfaces.

 

So you can adjust the length of the loop? longer is tightening it clockwise? Can't I just adjust the bonnet stops (rubber adjusters) to take up for the gap?

So the problem I had with the loop was nuts were tight would not move. I am not sure it wasn't because paint on the threads and I did not want to force the issue.
unhinged have you made these adjustments and were the nuts tight?

Thanks again for all your help

 

Yes...for a longer loop you turn clockwise. First and only time I had to adjust that loop was 5 years ago. I can’t remember how tight it was. That loop adjustment is only used to adjust the latch snugness. The bonnet stop bumpers should be adjusted first to get the bonnet at the right height near the windshield, the loops then adjusted for proper latching.

 

Hi
So just an update on the my saga of adjusting the bonnet to fender and front bumper gaps.

First the starting conditions were the bonnet when closed, protruded to far into both wheel wells. The bonnet also did not close and catch on the passenger side
all the time. It was actually contacting the black side vent. Gaps at the bumper were .06 to 09.the drivers side looked like it was almost hitting.

I spoke to my friend that does high end restoration work on Ferrari's Porsches and others. His specialty is paint work.
He was willing to take a look at it and make some suggestions. I first showed him the pdf's for the factory panel gaps and
The TSB for the adjustments. He was surprised that they would let a car that stickers at $108K leave the factory like that.

He said there were two basic approaches to take on the fix.
1. Work with what we have and make adjustments as best we can. Enemy of good is better!
2. Would require removing parts/panels, loosing the bumper, possibly doors and whatever else maybe needed to make improvements.

He also told me option 2 might not get us any closer then option one and be more time consuming.
One other thing he said based on his observation was that the bonnet was the driving factor based size and fit.

The main goal was to get all the panel lines to match along with gaps as he said the panel lines matching from all view angles
was probably the best to target.

We started by making sure the bonnet stops were all hitting when closed. He had a great trick of the trade to do this. apply a thin film of white grease
on the top of the stops. A film only. shut the bonnet and see if any of the grease transfers to the bonnet.
First try 3 were not contacting. Adjust (Small) the 3 that were not hitting wipe all grease off reapply as any adjustment could cause others not to contact.

Once we got all the stops contacting, This was our starting point. We then looked at all the panel lines and how they aligned to each other as well as gaps.
Biggest issue was the bonnet to bumper and (fender) panel next to the door. the bonnet closed/protruded into the wheel well to far. Which it was doing before as well, worst dimension was 5/16 to 3/8 of an inch with a tape measure. passenger side was still not latching on every close and still contacting the faux vent.

Next was getting the bonnet to latch on the passenger side every time and not contact the side vent.
This required raising the latch mechanism attached to the unibody.
This achieved multiple things on the passenger side. Bonnet now closed easy everytime and the bonnet did not contact the vent, reduced the
amount the bonnet protruded into the wheel well. by 80% and the panels lines were real close.

next go to the drivers side. Raised the latching on this side. Closed the bonnet, checked lines and gaps. this corrected the bonnet into the wheel wheel
almost completely and the lines were very close.

At this point it was livable!

We decided to see if we could get a little better with the stop adjustments only.

so we went back to the grease and raising the adjusters and checking lines and the gaps and bonnet closing.
we started with the adjustment closest to the worst area the gap and bonnet protruded into the front of the wheel well.
if we did one side we also did opposite side at the same time if both needed it. went back and forth until we were happy

We did the adjustments in pairs. We gained another 10% improvement on the bonnet into the wheel wheel all the panel lines
were much better with the exceptin of 2 things drivers side bonnet to bumper gap was still to close and there was a mismatch
still on how far the bonnet went into the wheel wheel.
We fixed this by shimming the the bumper down. 2 bolts right at that spot
removed them and put shims between the bumper and black plastic mounting bracket. Bingo gap and protrusion fixed on the drivers side.
last things we did was to lengthen the loop on the passenger side to match the gap between the vent and bonnet on both side of the car.
we then did the stop (grease) check and we were done.

Bonnet was snug,closed nicely using the stand in front of the car lower the bonnet
a foot from being closed with hands on the bonnet vents and dropping it and letting the weight latch it. no force required.

The conclusion was to match all the body lines first and that the bonnet still protrudes into the wheel wheel a small amount but
this may be done by design as if we matched the 3 wheel wheel lines(arc) the other lines would be out slightly. so picjk your poison.

So this is what worked for my car. I hope it helps. it took us about 1 hour 15 minutes that included a little bs'ing not much though.

Just one more thing to note. I believe the car came from the factory this way. Only one bolt at the very front of the bumper looked like it might
have been distrurbed, but after looking at it its possible it was done when the bumper was installed at the factory (overtightened).
I like the car and my 2004 xj8. But its shameful they let these cars leave the factory this way. its their top of the line car!

 

Here are a couple of pictures of my adjust bonnet gaps.

 

Could you clarify what this involved, I’ve not seen a previous mention of the latch being adjustable, only the loop on the underside of the hood/bonnet

Quote -
“This required raising the latch mechanism attached to the unibody“

Thanks
Kev

 

Yes remove the 2 plastic covers that are on either side of the car up against the windshield. This will expose the whole catch mechanism. On the side of the mechanism there are 2 bolts you loosen them to adjust either up or down. I put a piece of tape to mark where I started in case I have to put it back in the starting position.