As with all things kit car, the bonnet wasn't a perfect fit out of the box (but it wasn't that bad) so we decided to tidy up some bits and pieces, smooth some of the edges, trim a bit here and there, you know the story by now...

Whilst we were at it we decided to try and tweak the rolls in it so it lined up with the nose cone perfectly as well. The scuttle lined up ok, but the lines didn't quite run from the nose cone to the bonnet, so out came the stainless steel bus stop post Matt nicked from work a couple of years ago and adjustments were made.

You may have notice the gaping void in the middle of the bonnet? We have the MX-5 NB engine, 1.8l with the VVT. Unfortunately, neither the VVT system atop the engine, nor the cam sensor fit under the bonnet. We've seen a lot of ideas for getting around that, from rolled bulges, to little scoops stuck locally over the VVT, cutting the connector off the cam sensor and sort of potting the top of it and installing smaller engine mounts to drop the engine a bit.

We decided to go for a scoooop! And if you're going to do it... You might as well go big! So we went for the GRP offering from kitcar direct and bonded onto the underside of the bonnet. Looks smart we reckon!

So we have a scoop, we've tweaked the bonnet to fit, now just for the bonnet pins and the nosecone (so it all fits together nicely). For the bonnet pins, the engineer inside Matt wanted to put rivnuts into the top chassis rail, but you end up with quite big holes - does that compromise the integrity of the chassis? Well it will... Tapping an M6 hole into the top seemed less intrusive, so we went for that. You will only get a single thread into the chassis rail, but it should be enough. If it all goes wrong, you can always put a rivnut in at a later date! Bonnet catches already had the holes laser cut so they just needed riveting on. An easy job for a change!