peculiar bonnet

[saskak]

Hi all,

A bit off topic hence in the general chat.

I bought a second-hand Peugeot 307 (1.6 petrol; 2008; facelift) for my wife to learn how to drive. So, I bought two magnetic L-plates to put on the car. We stuck one at the back and all is good, the L-plate sticks without a problem.

On the bonnet, the magnetic L-plate just slides and does not want to stick to it at all. It is like the bonnet is not made of metal. I swapped the L-plates as well, just to make sure it is not the L-plate itself. I can see it is metal, as there is some bubbling rust underneath. Extremely surprising to say the least.
I would be really surprised if this is some sort of alloy, why would they do that, too expensive for this type of car. Does anyone have an explanation for this, or maybe I missed something. Could be that the previous owner replaced the original bonnet, but with something strange and as far as I can see it is not a replacement bonnet.
The magnetic L-plates stick everywhere, doors, etc., apart from the bonnet and the plastic front/rear wings. Bizarre.

[cancunia]

Strange!
Have you got any other magnets you can try?
My Pug Expert has a plastic tailgate.

[Sol]

Could be aluminium, it still bubbles paint but underneath is not rust but aluminium oxide.

The old BX's as I used to have, had a composite roof and wings I seem to remember, they weren't all metal.

[cancunia]

Could well be aluminium..

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/peugeot/30...eugeot-307

[saskak]

Ha, it could well be aluminium, as I scratched the bubbling paint and it seemed like aliminium oxide, rather than iron oxide (rust). The bonnet is the only place that seems to have aluminium, everything else is metal. Rather strange to use aluminium only on the bonnet.

[bikerbaker]

I've always wondered about the bonnet on the AX.

My ex wife was a driving instructor and had an AX from which she would lose magnetic plates on a regular basis. She didn't appreciate the explanation, I know the tailgate was plastic as my own AX GT was white and you could see car lights shining through it if the rear seat was down.

[Gryffindor]

This is only a theory, but I would imagine bonnets suffer a lot from flying grit, chips, stones when the car moves at speed, so it could have an ally top layer so that chips in the paint don't rust.

The magnetic power of L plates is probably weak; if so they might need to have direct contact with a ferrous metal surface (ignoring paint). As another idea to my first one, could a previous owner have spread bodyfiller over the bonnet and repainted it, thereby making a layer too thick for the L plate to work with?

What happens with an ordinary magnet? It'd probably be a lot stronger than the L plate.

[Gryffindor]

Another thought: ally is softer than steel or iron, so an ally bonnet would absorb impacts from stone chips and reduce their ability to bounce off at high speed into your windscreen.

As a fix for your problem, if it is possible, cut a sheet of tin* to fit as below, then tuck half of it behind the front reg plate, with maybe a couple of tabs cut into its sides to fold over the top of the reg plate and on its lower edge to fold over the plate's bottom edge, then place the L plate onto a higher area of the tin sheet protruding above the reg plate. You could curve the tin to the profile of the car's grille etc if it helps.

*Look round a supermarket for something in a large tin which is theoretically free (if you are happy to pay for what's inside it).

[RattyCortina]

Could be aluminium, it still bubbles paint but underneath is not rust but aluminium oxide.

The old BX's as I used to have, had a composite roof and wings I seem to remember, they weren't all metal.

Bx's had plastic bonnets.

[saskak]

Another thought: ally is softer than steel or iron, so an ally bonnet would absorb impacts from stone chips and reduce their ability to bounce off at high speed into your windscreen.

As a fix for your problem, if it is possible, cut a sheet of tin* to fit as below, then tuck half of it behind the front reg plate, with maybe a couple of tabs cut into its sides to fold over the top of the reg plate and on its lower edge to fold over the plate's bottom edge, then place the L plate onto a higher area of the tin sheet protruding above the reg plate. You could curve the tin to the profile of the car's grille etc if it helps.

*Look round a supermarket for something in a large tin which is theoretically free (if you are happy to pay for what's inside it).

It is aluminium altogether, underneath the paint is bubbling with aliminium oxide, as when I scratch the bubbles underneath is white powdery substance, rather than iron oxide or rust.
I have for the moment put the L-plate on the top of the car, next to the windscreen, hopefully people can see it, but have to think of a better solution. I thought about putting some sort of metal or tin underneath the bonnet and put the magnetic L-plate on top, but it is likely to fall somewhere in the engine with belts moving and all it is probably not a good idea. Maybe with some zip ties in front of the grill will be better, but probably on the side not to disrupt the flow of air to the fan.