Hi All, First Westfield Purchase

[Andy (Sycho)]

The fibreglass is covered  in gel coat which is applied when it’s made, if it’s a later bonnet it would have been made will a different batch which would/could be a different shade.

Or it could of come off a different car if the original got damaged, one way to find out is if you look on the inside of your body panels there should be a label with the batch number colour etc wrote on it & they should all match.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Given that the car is stock Ford fuel injected, it is incredibly, incredibly unlikely to have had an underbonnet fire, though to be fair not absolutely impossible. (With the stock injection, it doesn’t have the sort of issues that could cause the underbonnet fires on the old twin Weber cars that  Lyonspride was talking about.) 

The thing with clues, is that they really don’t, contrary to fictional detective stories, tell us much more than the obvious! It looks like it may have a different bonnet on. The tip about looking for the batch labels is a good one.

But in the end, with out further information ALL we know is that the bonnets been swapped! Maybe it was bought with a V8 bonnet, and someone   the look of a standard, maybe the botched up fitting a catch and replaced it, maybe it fell over while propped up and got scratched, maybe it came off on the road, or maybe even the pet cat scratched it while being chased by the neighbours dog!

Dont get hung up on the why’s and wherefore’s, if you can find out more from a previous owner, great, and if not, is there anything else about the car that sets a warning off? And of course, can you live with a slight colour difference? (Some of the Westfield colours, blues especially, do seem to be incredibly hard to match, batch to batch, for consistency).

I have a similar thing with a boot lid, bought a couple of years after the bodywork, the shade of electric blue is ever so slightly off, but in truth I don’t really notice anymore.

[Kingster]

I’ve just replace my bonnet with a V8 one. It’s ever so slightly different and not very noticeable. But does show that the gel coat can vary if not produced in the same batch. 

Nothing to worry about I’d say. 

[Howden Insurance - Specialist Vehicle]

I've just come across this thread! Thanks everyone for your recommendations and comments! 

4ndy glad you took out insurance with us - have fun in your new Westy... but stay safe 

Carlie @ Cherished Vehicle Insurance Services (part of the A-Plan Group)

[Robin Parker (Red Spider) - Yorkshire AO]

Don't worry too much if the bonnet is a slightly different shade, when I worked with fibreglass we had 3 different tins of dark admiralty grey pigment all mixed to the same British standard code. When they separated out one was green, one blue and one red. After mixing and using on a component you could see the different base colours coming through. Your bonnet could just be from a different batch.  

[4ndy]

Fingers crossed the weathers good tomorrow.