Pictures of soft top / hood

Technical Area for all the problems you have in the garage
Post Reply
Jerryedmans
T289R Member
T289R Member
Posts: 68
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:56 am

Pictures of soft top / hood

Post by Jerryedmans »

HI - I'm in process of fitting hood to Hawk 289 roadster. I've mounted side screens and now about to fit hood but was wondering if anyone would be able to share photos of a correctly fitted hood so that I can make sure I get it right. The bits I am wondering about at present (and I'm sure there will be other things I will realize later too!) is close up shots of the hood fitting around the door window frame, how the "gutter" of the hood around upper edge of frame aligns with the Front Windscreen mounting frame, the door screens at the top, how it aligns at the back of the door screens, the positioning of the hood and first lift-a-dot behind the door and then the positioning of lift-a-dot on the hood edge at the middle rear. I'm assuming the same lift-a-dot fasteners as for tonneau are used (but have vague images of tenax fasteners in my head but perhaps from other types of replicas?).

Many thanks for any help you can give.

Cheers

Jerry
User avatar
StewbieC
T289R Committee
T289R Committee
Posts: 1356
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 12:50 pm
Location: out in the sticks, Shropshire

Re: Pictures of soft top / hood

Post by StewbieC »

Hi Jerry,
There's a couple of photos of my car with a hood fitted on the Gallery of members cars in the members area. Also lots of options for colours :)
I fitted my hood, but If I were to do it again, I'd get it done professionally. The lift a dots are the same position as the tonneau (Which I'd also get professionally fitted) and these locations should be marked on the gelcoat if yours isn't yet painted.
I used Tennax male fittings around the back as female liftadot fasteners do fit them. The Tennax male fasteners come as options with longer threaded stems. This allows nuts and washers to be fitted to provide them with more strength rather than just tapping out the fibreglass. You wouldn't imagine how much force is placed on a softtop when driving on a motorway. I also fitted a screen centre stay to stop the top of the screen being ripped off (which although rare, has happened).
Fasteners are available from Gerry or most marine suppliers. Threads are 2BA. You need a special punch tool to punch out the fabric to fit the female fasteners. The normal method is to fit the liftadots or Tennax in the body first, stretch out the tonneau or hood and mark on the fabric with chalk the location of the male fasteners, then punch out to take the female fasteners.
The reason why I say get it professionally fitted is that my tonneau has shrunk and the hood has expanded even though they are made from the same double duck fabric by the same manufacturer and they were equally taut when I fitted them.
________________________________________________
Stu
Hawk 289, 66 Mustang Fastback with a 289 maximum smiles per mile..
Jerryedmans
T289R Member
T289R Member
Posts: 68
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:56 am

Re: Pictures of soft top / hood

Post by Jerryedmans »

Hi Stu - thanks v much. Will look on gallery. I was concerned about stretch and shrinkage. Tonneaus is fitted and quite tight as I did not want it flapping. Hoping it does not shrink. Am concerned about tensioning the hood. On my last build (29 years ago!) the tricky bit was tensioning without the impact glue in bows slipping. But it had zip in side screens. Getting a good fit round the frames adds another dimension! Cheers.
Colin Newbold
Posts: 1282
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 10:41 am
Location: Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Contact:

Re: Pictures of soft top / hood

Post by Colin Newbold »

Original cars had Everflex vinyl hoods/tonneaux Jerry, probably less susceptible to expansion/shrinkage, but most go for the double duck variety. Less authentic but posher! And Cobra hoods were never waterproof Jerry, doubt whether they ever will be. Keep a towel, kitchen roll, bits of chamois leather in the car. All adds to the period feel!
Colin
"How you see yourself is all very well, but it's how others see you that will determine the results you get as a leader!"
Jerryedmans
T289R Member
T289R Member
Posts: 68
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:56 am

Re: Pictures of soft top / hood

Post by Jerryedmans »

Thanks all for help. Now in and looking good. It takes a few pairs of hands to do this and thanks to Phil Riley and a couple of neighbours we got hood on evenly and nicely tensioned. For those doing job, drape hood and using lots of masking / gorilla tape get in rough position over windscreen, side screen frames and rear scuttle. The first step was to fit lift a dots just behind door. The hood aligns with the back edge of door aperture and 2 pairs of hands making sure evenly positioned over hood pole does the job. Then fit middle back lift a dots and then work round the rest making sure you keep evenly tensioned. Chalk useful for marking where the studs are. Fit one by one and reposition each time to make sure all still looking in place. Then for tricky bit the hood bows. I chose to upholster ends of hood bows with mohair before I started job to make it look tidy. Fit bows to screen edge, a bit of the foam trim inside so at correct height and hood catches holding in place on the corners. Then 4 pairs of hands one on each front corner, one tensioning middle, the othe running round the car to ensure even both sides. When hood looking in position get some alignment marks in place on front screen and front corners so helpers can get it back in position easily and run some chalk on the top of hood along front edge of the bows (again this will help in repositioning later). Remove hood from bows and run chalk over top leading edge of bows. Carefully reposition hood to the alignment marks and make sure the chalk dust has transferred from bows to inner side of hood. Remove hood and run masking tape to mask just behind this chalk line and brush on high strength impact glue to the couple of inches in front of tape (I popped round to a local car trimmer who sold me a pot of the stuff they use). Brush glue on front face of bows (lightly sand this face first so the glue gates better purchase) . Get your team of 4 pairs of hands to reposition hood according to marks but not to pull down onto front edge until you are happy in position. Then work from middle outwards along each bow and as soon as stuck down release tension by slackening the folding part of hood frame and then remove bows. Next bit only needs one pair of hands and a bit of care and thought to fold and glue surplus hood material into inner part of screen bows (just inner front and top). I also cut and glued a piece of the same mohair material to reinforce in the centre between hood bows - this gives the centre the same thickness as the rest of hood and once the surplus is then folded and glued inside the bows and also over the central gap between bows you have a strong and neat finish. Final tip - make sure your helpers are practical people with Perfectionist tendencies and let them add their thoughts on how to tackle job well. Good luck.
Jerryedmans
T289R Member
T289R Member
Posts: 68
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:56 am

Re: Pictures of soft top / hood

Post by Jerryedmans »

A couple of final thoughts. When aligning hood over bows the side gutter of the hood moreorless reaches the windscreen side columns. Was not quite equal on both sides perhaps because of a slight variation in screen shape or positioning of screen columns. The slight variation was not visible and we worked in ensuring equally tensioned each side. Then check the alignment of hood to top of side screen frames. Should be same in each side at both top and back edge if side screens.
Post Reply