[TR] TR Bonnets: (Was Re: TR3 - how does the door latch strap fasten to the door latch)

[Jeff Scarbrough]

On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 7:55 AM DAVID MASSEY <dave1massey at cs.com> wrote:

> Hurts the pocket book but it also hurts the pride.  Really embarrassing.
>
>
I may have told this story before... In a previous life, I worked for a
Volkswagen dealer as a Service Technician ("schmieraffe").  Most of the
cars we saw were newer, but occasionally, there was one that had seen a
rough life.  This day it was a 1977 VW Rabbit.   I forget the complaint,
but I brought it into my bay and opened the hood by untying the coat hanger
that held it shut.  That was the only securement for it...

After inspecting whatever I was inspecting, I got the customer to go for a
test drive with me.

We set out around the block, me confidently behind the wheel.  Our test
drive route left the dealer on Piedmont Road in Atlanta, turned right
through a residential neighborhood, then came out on Pharr Road in trendy
Buckhead....

As I pulled out on Pharr Road, I wound it up to the speed limit, listening
for the noise I was tracing...all of the sudden, the hood went straight up,
hung for a second by the ground strap attached to it while I desperately
tried to look between bonnet and cowl to see where I was going while I
slowed down.  After an eternity, the hood sailed out of sight behind us.

Miraculously, in busy Atlanta traffic, there was nobody in the way behind
us.  I stopped the car and we got out and went back to retrieve the hood.
Other than one bent rear corner, it didn't look any worse than before.  I
looked at the customer, they looked at me, they shrugged, I shrugged, and
we set it back in place and drove on back to the shop.  No words were ever
said.

When I released the car back to them, though, that coat hanger was *tight*.
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