Hood (part 5)

The centre of the Tenax fastener holes were marked on the fabric where it fitted to the moulding. This was just above the dip between the boot and the rear wing on each side.

The hood fabric was carefully removed from the car. To finish off the hood, the fabric over lapping the hood bows was stuck in to the channel and surplus fabric trimmed off.

Fabric stuck into channel and clamped in place

Fabric trimmed so that it is only stuck to the front face of the channel

Holes were punched in the corners of hood fabric, where marked. Next I made up two tabs out of plastic, using a photo from Andy as a guide.  The screw thread of the spring cap parts of the Tenax fasteners were pushed through the tab and then the fabric. I tried to screw on the “nut” part with a Tenax fastener tool. Although the plastic was supplied by GD, I could not get the plastic and hood fabric between the two parts of the fastener as they were too thick, so this part was abandoned! The idea of the tab is to stop the piping curling up at the corners, so I will have to live with this risk. The Tenax fasteners were therefore fitted without the tabs.

The stud was fitted to the moulding. The nut that goes onto the stud behind the moulding was fiddly to attach to say the least!

Tenax fastener fitted. I have now removed the crease by tensioning the material.

The hood was refitted to the car. It was then that I noticed that the locating peg from the front off side screen bows had pulled out of the bow. So another job to refit it. (Note: Decided to buy a new bow from Europa rather than seek out a welder to fix it).

Inside view

View from front

View from rear

Job finally done - after three attempts at getting the tension right to get rid of the ridges in the fabric - had to pull the stuck fabric off the bow, remove the adhesive and then refit!

I was told that the first time the hood gets wet DO NOT put it down until it is dry, otherwise you will never get it back on. So I won’t risk it, but presumably it will help further tension the hood by getting it wet.

Now for the side screens!

Hood (part 4)

The hood fabric was removed again and warmed up in the house, then refitted to the moulding and over the hood frame (this is important to ensure that the tension is correct). Make sure that the hood frame is fitted the right way round  - with the cranked bits facing forward. The frame straps were put in place to hold the metal tubes in the correct place. A small heater was placed on the transmission tunnel to keep the hood fabric warm and pliable.

The fabric was pulled over the hood bows and screen, then taped in place, making sure that the overlap at each side was as near as possible same. The rear fitting to the moulding had to be adjusted to remove the sag from the rear window and creases from the roof area. The whole thing took a lot of fiddling, a bit of cursing and I broke a few finger nails in the process!

Effective, but doesn’t look pretty!

Inside looks ok though.  Note: straps to retain spacing of hood frame

Next the hood fabric was released from half of the screen and adhesive applied to the front of the hood bow only. The fabric was pulled over the bow/screen into its original position and the tape was then re-applied to retain the position whilst the glue set. This was then repeated for the other half. Note: The fabric is only glued to the face of the hood bow (not the top, as this slopes in the opposite direction to the hood fabric).

The press studs were fixed to the moulding (see photo) to secure the hood flap. I used double sided number plate adhesive tape to help identify where the male studs should be fixed. Simply put a small piece of number plate tape or similar under the female part of the press stud and apply some pressure against it (the female part of the stud is already fixed to the hood). Then drill a hole in the centre of this mark. I used a small nut, bolt and washer to fix the male part of the stud.

Press stud fitting to moulding. 

I made sure the securing tape (to the screen) was plentiful and left the hood on the car overnight for the adhesive to go off.

Hood (part 3)

The hood has come back from the trimmers. There was a roll of Velcro in the pack which wasn’t there before. On closer inspection I noticed that the Velcro was just the hook part (there was no loop Velcro). Also I noticed that the hood fabric that went under the moulding, has been cut off! So a quick call was made to Andy at GD to find out what this was about.

Andy said that the fixing method had changed. He recommended that I applied adhesive to the moulding and let it go off. Then to stick the hook part of the Velcro to the moulding. The loop part of the Velcro is already sewn on to the hood fabric. Andy also sent through some photos of a hood fitted to a factory built car. These showed that in addition to the Velcro, two Tennex fasteners were used at the rear corners of the mouldings to help hold the hood in place. Andy sent through a couple of Tenax fasteners. Another photo showed where the other part of the hood press studs were fitted.

First the mouldings were removed from the car and the position of the Velcro was marked on the upstand of the mouldings and cut to length. The Velcro was positioned so that the very bottom edge of it was in line with the moulding’s lower edge. This makes sure that the piping on the hood fabric is a snug fit to the body. This area was rubbed down again to provide a key for the adhesive and masked off. The exposed part of the moulding upstands were spray painted to tidy them up a little (Andy also trims the ends of these with some leather). Once the paint was dry, the masking tape was removed and the adhesive was applied to the mouldings. When this had gone off, the hook side of the Velcro was applied to each of the mouldings and the moulding re-fitted to the car.

Next I applied some P shaped draught excluder to the underside of the two mouldings. This was to seal any gap and to stop the moulding scratching the car body (not in the GD instructions).

The hood fabric was warmed up on a radiator to make it more flexible to fit.

A bit of heat helps with the fabric fitting.

The centre of the hood fabric was found (mine had a central seam) and this was positioned to align with the centre of the car. The hood fabric was then attached to the car using the Velcro, stretching it to go around the moulding.

Fabric fixed to GRP with Velcro 

The inner flap near the doors do not reach the ends of the GRP - about 30mm short (so 20mm better than it was!). Andy says this is OK and this is why he finishes it off with some leather. So the fabric does not cover all of the GRP (see photos).

Near side flap is short of GRP end 

As above, but for the off-side

Next job, once I have thawed out, is to fix the hood fabric, press studs and the Tenaxfasteners. More on that later.