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

[DAVID MASSEY]

 The same thing happened to a friend of mine but he was driving an early 70's Buick.  That hood was so heavy and stout that even though he was doing highway speeds, it just opened up to full extension.  He pulled over, closed the hood and continued on.
 
Dave 

 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Scarbrough <fishplate at gmail.com>
To: Triumphs (triumphs at autox.team.net) <triumphs at autox.team.net>
Sent: Mon, Jun 8, 2020 1:59 pm
Subject: Re: [TR] TR Bonnets: (Was Re: TR3 - how does the door latch strap fasten to the door latch)



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*.


** triumphs at autox.team.net **

Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/triumphs  http://www.team.net/archive

Unsubscribe/Manage: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/triumphs/dave1massey@cs.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/triumphs/attachments/20200608/a4802d40/attachment.htm>