Fitting a new nose

[furtive]

I've got a new nose for my narrow bodied Westy to replace the one damaged when a Jeep reversed over me.

It doesn't have any holes drilled in it, or have a grill attached so I am going to have to drill the holes in the right place and get the grill off my old nose.

Has anyone got any tips to make sure I get the holes in the right place? And how are the grill's held on? I've never actually examined it.

Thanks.

[Phil P]

I've taken the nose cone off of my 88sei narrow a few times. Pretty straightforward really, 2 dsuz fasteners at the rearmost cormers of the cone, jut below the headlights where the nose meets the bonnet, and one central fastener, a bolt on my case, under the front of the cone towards the rear edge. Undo this lot & it should come off easily. You might hanve to rotalte your headlights to point outwards ascone probably won't clear them as is when you pull it forward as you remove it - at least in didn't on my car.

In terms of drilling cutting, the best thing I've found for cutting, trimming fibreglass is the reaming tool which came with my dremel

Hope this helps!

Phil

[furtive]

Removing the old nose is no problem - I've had it off loads of times. I was more concerned with ensuring that the new nose is fitted in the right place, and swapping over the grill.

[gee_fin]

A tip learnt from the father of my car Mick Cooper -

Take a cardboard template of the nosecone grille hole.

Get some mfd of a reasonable thickness.

Cut out section of mdf by using template.

Place mesh for nosecone grille on top of mfd.

Get cut-out section of mdf and push onto mesh, sandwiching down mesh.

You now have a nicely formed, parially protruding grille. Looks much nicer than a flat one for just ten minutes work.

Sikaflix onto the inside of the nosecone.....

Graeme.