Since I no longer had a VW engine and the Alfa unit was lower I didn't need the ugly engine cover I purchased. So I set about making a mold out of wood to replace it with a complete new full size cover and new engine lid. Most of the photos were extracted from old VHS tape so excuse the poor quality images.
The original MK 1 engine cover, unfortunately I don't have a photo of it down.
The extremely ugly MK 2 cover that I replaced the original with, what was I thinking!
I started by making a wooden mold with a channel in the middle to add a bit of style to an otherwise flat surface
I laid some fibreglass followed by paper rope ribs to give some torsional rigidity
This was followed by another layer of fibreglass over the rope
I then adapted the mold to make a rain channel. I glassed over this then cut it out and bonded it to the inside of the newly cut out engine cover that would be hinged
Then the panel was bonded to the original body with brackets and fibreglass filler
Once painted the new panel looks much better than the original "hump" engine lid and rear visibility through the window is also improved
