There wasn’t time to investigate why the bonnet wouldn’t shut the last few inches, so I had a chance to sleep on it. The problem was that it’s not possible to see inside the bonnet area at the point its travel begins to be obstructed.
Only the engine and radiator has been installed so it shouldn’t be too difficult to work out. I remember reading somewhere on the E-Type forum that the Series 2 had an extra spacer somewhere in the engine mountings. Although I thought this only affected the carburettor clearance but these were still to be fitted.
Some off-cuts of the foam rubber Dynaliner were place strategically on all the high points. I was aiming to lower the bonnet to the obstruction and then inspect the Dynaliner. The foam would take a little while to return to its previous state so the indentations of any impact would remain and be easily traced.
A couple of attempts still didn’t reveal an area of compression in the rubber …. more head scratching. It was definitely not the engine as this was almost entirely encased in Dynaliner.
It finally dawned on me – it must be the radiator support struts impacting the vertical sides of the air intake channels. When they were first installed, it was mentioned whether they should be fitted on the inner or outer side of the damping rubber grommet.
With hindsight, they did look angled when mounted on the outer sides. The brackets were removed and the bonnet was lowered to prove the theory. Spot on …. the bonnet reached the landing rubber without being obstructed.
The struts were reinstalled but this time on the inboard side of their grommet. The bonnet was lowered, having finished the job, only the problem was still happening!
However this time, when the bonnet was raised to investigate, it revealed a 4-5 inch scrape in the paint on the air intake duct. Gutted.
The strut positioning was only part of the problem. They were causing the ‘springiness’ of the impact because the bonnet edge was hitting the strut and just pushing it aside.
Once it had be repositioned and was out of the way, it allowed the bolt head, securing the strut to the radiator, to take a gouge out of the paint work.
The bolt head was sitting too proud because I’d used a washer between the radiator and the strut and one between the strut and the bolt head. Without them, it would probably have been ok. However I’m going to remove all the washers, fit a thin-headed bolt and reposition the radiator on the bottom mountings to try to centralise it with the bonnet.
I had wrongly assumed that once the mounting brackets had been fitted to the engine, the weight would naturally align their bolt holes with the engine mounts fixed to the frames. After a considerable struggle, not dissimilar to the fitting of the rear suspension, everything was lined up and the front engine mounts could be secured.
I thought it would be easier to fit the central engine stabiliser once the engine was in place, as it’s one thing less to keep an eye on when the engine is lifted. It’s was fiddly job as there’s very little room between the engine and the bulkhead to get your fingers in. I think I’d prefit it next time.
The heater valve was another part that was difficult to remove, as the bulkhead heater pipe had seized solid into the valve body. I didn’t want to apply heat in case it damaged any internal rubber seals and so I tried to break the joint by rotating the valve body. All this achieved was to deform the pipe, which eventually had to be cut to remove the valve.
The rivet was drilled out and then it was fairly easy to split the valve in two by rotating the end cap. This revealed the cause of the weeping – a sprung rubber diaphragm, that is used to control the passage of water, had become furred up. 
Even after extensive internet searches, I haven’t been able to find a supplier that just supplies the internal rubber diaphragm. Unfortunately the options are very limited. 
The lock barrels are of the wafer tumbler design where five sprung loaded wafers protrude at the top of the barrel. They align with corresponding slots in the handle’s push button and stop the barrel from being rotated inside the push button. 
A spring is fitted to the inner end of the lock barrel which ensures it always returns to the aligned position, allowing the key to be removed. 
The fixing screw ensures that the ears of the plunger are positioned in line with the end section of the lock barrel (when the button is not pressed). 
A sprung linkage is attached between the operating lever and the locking lever of the latch mechanism, mounted below on the rear face of the door. Therefore the latch lever will either be pulled (unlocking) or pushed (locking), depending on the direction of rotation of the key. 
Other immediate issues were one of the alloy lock housings had broken around one of its mounting holes and the inner washer, inserted before the large spring, was missing.
Both locks had become clarted up with dirt and grease over the years. One so much so that it was difficult to rotate the key. 
The window regulators and door latches had come back from the platers looking almost like new. The interior space within the door will be subject to a lot more moisture than most of the other areas of the car, so these were given a coating of Dinitrol hard wax. 
The first was so weakened that it bent when the glass was removed. Fortunately replacements are available but as usual they’re a long way off the quality of the originals.
The first trial was to place the rubber in the channel and then trying to insert the glass. As there wasn’t any lubrication, this mainly compressed the rubber into the channel. The rubber had more of a tendency to push the glass out of the channel than hold it in place. 
Quite early on the radiator had been sent off to Northampton Autorads to be ‘re-cored’. It was then stored for a number of years as progress with the restoration ground to a halt. Partly due to lack of time but also a lack of enthusiasm once it became clear how much work was involved in a full restoration.
The only way I could get the switch’s plunger anywhere near to the ‘finger’ protrusion was to mount the switch to the bracket and then use two locking nuts to position the spring at the end of the switch – as shown in the photo.
My handbrake had been hacked about at some time in the past. The bracket attachment has been cut off and welded further back. 
The issues getting the rear suspension fitted meant that there wasn’t time to fit the front suspension let alone the engine. 
The original camber shims had been re-plated and were fitted behind the front and rear mounts. I suspect the shimming will need to be changed when the geometry is finally set up because the new engine frames have been fitted. 
One of the main problems during the rebuild was the lack of space to store the bonnet out of harms way. It was therefore safer to kept the bonnet on the car and only remove it when absolutely necessary. 