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Glass Fibre front end, opinions, experience?
r1_pete - 15/12/11 at 09:47 PM

Has anyone any experiance of Honeybourne Mouldings

I'm thinking of putting one of their front ends on my E Type, and wondered if anyone had any comment on their quality.

My options are limitted to rebuilding my own, which will cost me at least £1,000, plus prep and paint, replace the entire bonnet in Steel, about £5,000, alloy nearer £7,000, or a GF one at £760.

How do you find glass fibre bodywork stands up in use?

Cheers.

Pete.

flak monkey - 15/12/11 at 10:00 PM

Should be fine. GRP is really easy to work with and pretty simple to repair. As long as its fairly thick to resist sagging under heat etc.

I have a complete GRP front end for the Camaro when I get around to putting it back together, wings, bonnet and bumper.

tegwin - 15/12/11 at 10:08 PM

Worth checking what exactly its made of... If its close to anything hot, ideally the grade of fibre/resin wants to be right.... Its also really hard to stop the surface cracking... My TVR had a one peice hinged front section from the nose to the scuttle.... Recently re-sprayed ... but with a few drives and unavoidable flexing in the panel, small spiderweb cracks could be seen in the new paintwork....... Maybe a fault in the paintjob.. I dont know!

britishtrident - 15/12/11 at 10:11 PM

The standard E-type bonnet ain't exactly light, it is also a swine to change and get the the catches lined up ---- if the one we repaired is anything to go by I would guess your main problem will be rust at the hinges.

matt_gsxr - 15/12/11 at 10:13 PM

Don't know about e-type bonnets, but fury and phoenix have fibreglass bonnets. A bit of heat proofing on the underside can help near the manifolds.

That site has some potentially useful power bulges.
http://www.honeybournemouldings.co.uk/fibreglasspowerbulges.htm

NigeEss - 15/12/11 at 10:39 PM

About 20 years ago ought a one piece flip front for a Mini from them. Was pleased with the
quality and it was strong enough to trash the rear quarter panel of a Nissan Stanza, It was
not too pretty afterwards though

Andybarbet - 15/12/11 at 11:08 PM

About 15 years ago i bought a fibreglass hardtop from them for my soft top TR7 (the triumph factory never made one for the tr7 drophead)

Quality was good & a great company to deal with back then, they must have been going 30 years now.

nick205 - 16/12/11 at 10:14 AM

quote:
Originally posted by r1_pete
Has anyone any experiance of Honeybourne Mouldings

I'm thinking of putting one of their front ends on my E Type, and wondered if anyone had any comment on their quality.

My options are limitted to rebuilding my own, which will cost me at least £1,000, plus prep and paint, replace the entire bonnet in Steel, about £5,000, alloy nearer £7,000, or a GF one at £760.

How do you find glass fibre bodywork stands up in use?

Cheers.

Pete.



Presumably the GF bonnet will also require prep and paint?

If so then repairing the original bonnet would seem the best approach in terms of value IMHO. A GF bonnet on an E-Type will surely have a negative effect the car's overall value?

I've helped my Dad restore four E-Types now and the biggest headache is always fitting and aligning the bonnet. It's heavy, awkward to handle, easily damaged and never straight

r1_pete - 16/12/11 at 01:57 PM

Thanks for all the replies chaps...

My existing bonnet isn't too bad, it just needs a new panel under the bumper, but I also fancied a Series 1 style with covered headlights.

Yes they are heavy, about 80-90kg I believe, and about a third of the cars bodywork.

I'm not too worried about resale values, I want a nice condition usable car, its far from standard anyway, so I'm afraid if the purists don't like it they can look away, its not for sale anyway.

Guess I could always keep the steel unit in case circumstances change.

Cheers.

Pete.

Thinking about it - 16/12/11 at 06:49 PM

I bought some Midget wings about 30 years ok. No problems at the time.