My first Morgan had the handle from a croquet mallet to hold the bonnet open. It was cute, had various turnings along its length and nice colors but when the wind blew or if the car was on an inline: boomp! Down came the bonnet. Over the years I have seen and tried many different solutions to the problem of holding the bonnet open. Many worked well, many were no better than my old croquet stick. I’ve settled on variations of the following solution. It works well, is always there, doesn’t rattle, and most important the bonnet stays up until you want it down.
Here is an example as fitted to a 4/4
The basic system:
First the rod:
Two solutions for the top:
Modify the stock bonnet latch by welding material and drilling/filing an elongated hole. NOTE: the width is not important. The fillets are. They replace the material lost by drilling the hole.
Make a clip from 20ga or thicker SS to fit an existing latch screw.
And two solutions for the bottom:
Actually it is only two versions of the same thing: Either you tap the hole for the1/4″-20 threads on the rod or not. If tapped then the nuts are not required (I always use them anyway for appearannce). If it is just a 1/4″ through hole then the nuts and nylon washers are required.
and lastly: something to hold the rod when not in use:
Different models and opposite sides require different solutions. And don’t forget to put a rubber grommet on the end to prevent paint damage.
