Steel bonnet on a BX TRi

Bazza · Post by **Bazza** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 7:36 am

Hi all, Just purchased this TRi in superfast red. Its an Auto and isnt as fast off the line as my TRi manual job. I bought it last week and was surprised to find a metal bonnet.?. Is this rare,? The car came from Japan and was imported into New Zealand a few years back. It may be that some countries wont allow cars with 'fibreglass' type bonnets and bootlids. The bootlid on this one is off another car ('cos it has a spoiler) so is Fibre (and silver on a red car Grrrr) so I dont know if the original lid was steel too. Any thoughts from the Gurus.?

Also, Speedlines. Just bought a set. (About 55 quid for the four). They are finished in a nice shade of silver. Quite a thick coating too. One has lost some 'paint' and I have to get all four stripped and ???? and thats where you lot come in... Were they originally polished or painted.? Should I polish or Powdercoat.?? Under the silver is a very pale blue finish. Did these FAB wheels come in different colours to match the car?? So many questions, so little time.... Finally, WHICH of the fleet of 5 gets the wheels.????

Oh, the BX TRi manual rocketship is fitted with ROH 15" wheels. A tight fit and a pig to get on at the rear but I bought the car purely because I loved the wheels.... was going to put them on the Turbo Diesel Estate but the TRi is so bloody fast I cannot bear to do anything that might slow it down....

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:12 am

My understanding is that many replacement bonnets were steel - easier to paint? This means that they turn up on cars of all ages. I think they may have been standard later - and may have been preferred for crash purposes in some countries.

Bazza · Post by **Bazza** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:27 pm

Thanks Jeremy. That sounds good. If the original bonnets were 'self coloured' to suit each car, the spare parts holdings would be enormous and, as you say, there may be a reason regarding painting replacement panels. I was just totally surprised to even SEE a steel bonnet. Holds the nose down under a heavy foot though.............
All the under bonnet stickers are in Japanese too which is quaint and it also has the Catalytic pod in the exhaust.

Mike E (uk) · Post by **Mike E (uk)** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 9:27 pm

Diesel BXs tend to have the metal bonnets in the UK, I expect this is because of the improved sound deadening.

The plastic lids are painted just like the metal ones.

The very last UK BXs- 1993 on- all appear to have metal bonnets.

I dont know why- perhaps they ran out of the plastic version or they were cheaper.

The plastic bonnet is far lighter, and therefore preferable.

I doubt if the metal bonnet helps in an accident as it is not a structural part of the car, but they do give better screening against ignition interference on the radio.

Mike

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 9:34 pm

My 93 Turbo has a plastic bonnet??

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:14 am

MULLEY wrote:My 93 Turbo has a plastic bonnet??

... which is the standard case.
Over here in DK I cant remember I've seen a BX steel bonnet yet. But they are available as spare parts from aftermarket dealers.

There is no rules to which models/year the steel bonnets were fitted.
My guess is that it was a range of production series that had it fitted because of exhausted stocks on the plastic ones.
It was then purely coincident to find a batch of BX'es in various countries fitted with the steel bonnets.

Remember the BX were produced in more than 2million copies !
A production run of 5000ea with some special component fitted would therefore be considered a rarity.

AlanS · Post by **AlanS** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:36 am

Speaking of bonnets; I have a burnt out 16V sitting in my yard with the mechanicals out.
A couple of weeks ago we were hit by what was described as a "once in 100 years storm" which had some very strong winds associated with it.
When it was over I noticed the bonnet was missing and went looking for it.
It turned up about 80 metres away from the car. It wasn't fully locked down, so as a result, the wind blew it up, snapped off the bolts to the hinges and flung at across the paddock about 30 metres. In so doing it managed to go between an old CX and a large branch on a gumtree (how it fitted is a mystery; it must have been flying like a frisbie at that stage) it then buried a corner into the soil which is normally as hard as concrete, but it dug in at least 4 inches, flew across and hit a ring lock chainwire fence with steel star pickets and bent the fence back to around 45 degrees over a length of around 10 metres, somersalted over the fence and went a further 10/15 metres back into the next paddock before landing face down and staying there.
Total damage? A crack about 3 inches long and badly bent hinges. Don't let anyone tell you these plastic bonnets ain't tough.
Without doubt it would have killed any animal or person it would have hit.

Alan S