MJ
Member
Registered: 18th Sep 03
Location: Hampshire Drives: ITR DC2 + Skoda Felicia
User status: Offline
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Thanks to net_freak this is his guide, also found here http://www.stewhite.co.uk/badboy_project.html
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After finishing a short evening course in welding together with my growing interest in corsas, i desided to buy myself a second-hand MIG welder and try and attemp some badboy bonnets for myself. I dont know wether its just me or the area a live in the North East but the hardest part of this project was finding a bonnet in good enough condition, i thought a common car such as a corsa would be easy enough to find, but anyway.
During the project i took a few progress pictures of the different stages i was at, and thought id put together a short guide on how to go about making these bonnets, hope its to of some interest to read, i know its a common mod but theres people like myself who like to do things themselves, rather than give a bodyshop money for something that can take a weekend of your time.
One big mistake i made was i didnt take a picture of the brows i had fabricated before i welded them onto the bonnet, but hopefully i can explain it. If you place a piece of cardboard under the bonnet resting on the head light, take a marker and trace around the edge of the bonnet and take cardboard out and use a ruler to join each edge up, this will form the flat edge with gives the bonnet the mean look. Once you have cut out your template, you will need some 1mm or 2mm (which i used) sheet steel which i purchase from my local B&Q store for about £12 for 1m X 0.5m. Trace round your template and cut out your brow you will need to draw two, obviously one for each side. Then its a case of mocking up and bending to the curve of the bonnet and you may need to grind the curved edge so that the brow sits flush in the gap as pictured below.
Then you start tacking all the way along, then grind off the excess weld and you should have something starting to look like this. Its best to use MIG weld for this as it doesnt give off too much heat, but i have known people who've done it with MMA, just be careful not to blow and holes through the metal.
Once you've done one side repeat the process on the other side and now your bonnet is taking shape.
This image is just to show that, when you weld with mig with no gas, your weld starts to show a black/brown scortch mark around it, also its not recommended you weld without no gas as it makes the weld become alot more brittle, so its not as strong.
Once the welds have been ground off we can now start and use the body filler, making sure you dont be shy and put plenty on, as we need to build up a good layer so the brows look smoothed in.
Just keep building up that body filler.
Once you've got a good layer of body filler on, you can start the long process of sanding, using P240 wet and dry to shape the filler.
If you are only adding the badboy brows then you just need to keep sanding to get it really smooth ready for spraying, but if you are going to be adding the extended piece then carry on reading.
You fabricate this piece in the same way as the brows, making a template then transfering that to the metal and cutting out. Once you have cut it out and have ground it to fit snugly, then start tacking it along.
This picture is from another angle and also zoomed in so you can see what i have done.
Start grinding off the excess welds so its nice and flat. Always make sure you are wearing eye protection when using your grinder.
Now when using body filler for this part, you dont have to use as much as all your wanting to do it fill the holes and using the filler to shape the contors of the bonnet so its a nice smooth flow.
Once the filler is on and your happy to start sanding, start to get that badboy smoothed,
When its nice and smooth give it a spray of primer to see any minor inperfections, and touch up if nessasary.
This is another angle of the bonnet after i primed it.
My mate saw this bonnet i was doing and asked if he could buy it off me, so i said yes. He requested if i could smooth off the washer jets, i didnt like the idea but its his car, plus he's paying me to do it, so i did it.
Finally got the bonnet finshed and fitted to his 2 litre turbo corsa, hes getting a full re-spray hence why the bonnets multi-coloured.
This picture is trying to show the hole 'BadBoy' effect when you turn your lights on, his dipped lights dont work and my digi camera has picked up on the lights abit too much, looks class in real life.
And lastly i tried to take a picture as he was turning his lights off, and ended up with something that should be in night rider.
I hope this helped and any feedback would be much appriciated, By clicking Here
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This seams a great guide that we all needed, answers alot of questions 
IAN/TIM this needs to be a tutorial 
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