DIY Hood Replacement
Discussion
Take a look at this fella......
www.tvrsseries.com
Somewhere down the side menu there is a good article on hood replacement. It's not on a Wedge but you get the idea.
After a lot of thinking and huffing and puffing I decided to get mine done properly! After looking at the rusty bolts they ended up drilling out of mine I am glad!
MikeB
www.tvrsseries.com
Somewhere down the side menu there is a good article on hood replacement. It's not on a Wedge but you get the idea.
After a lot of thinking and huffing and puffing I decided to get mine done properly! After looking at the rusty bolts they ended up drilling out of mine I am glad!
MikeB
Personally I wouldn't do it, it's not an easy job. But if you do, be aware that no two cars are the same, so use your old hood as a templet (assuming it fits OK). I bought one 'off the shelf' and although the hood was symmetrical the car wasn't, it needed to be about an inch longer on one side.
Gotta agree with Steve on this one.
I had West Country trimmers do the job on mine (thay do all Peninsula's stuff for them on the trimming front) and they did a fantastic job.
I had the guy do little panty pad type 'wings' at the sides of the hood imediately behind the windows, as these always tend to shirnk back a little and end up not fitting properly to the velcro.
Some time now has gone by and I am glad I did as they have shrunk a little and now they fit perfectly and keep the rain out great.
The guy showed me the bolts that he ended up drilling out and these were practically rusted away as well.
That and the potch of fiddling and faffing about to get the rear window to sit straight and level without ripples I would tend to leave this sort of thing to a professional. My hood was made bespoke for the car, that same hood would defo not fit on yours!
I also got the dude to fit a set of alloy Griff struts which I picked up second hand and these have helped tremendously.
The Wedge struts tend to reach maximum stretch and then relax a little just before they lock in position. The griff struts stretch and then lock in position fully tensioned with a solid clunk and full stretch. If you are going to do the job yourself then make sure you tension the hood correctly or when you lock the hood in place with the standard black struts you might end up with ripples in the rear window plastic when the standard rear hood struts let a bit of tension off when locked.
MikeyB
I had West Country trimmers do the job on mine (thay do all Peninsula's stuff for them on the trimming front) and they did a fantastic job.
I had the guy do little panty pad type 'wings' at the sides of the hood imediately behind the windows, as these always tend to shirnk back a little and end up not fitting properly to the velcro.
Some time now has gone by and I am glad I did as they have shrunk a little and now they fit perfectly and keep the rain out great.
The guy showed me the bolts that he ended up drilling out and these were practically rusted away as well.
That and the potch of fiddling and faffing about to get the rear window to sit straight and level without ripples I would tend to leave this sort of thing to a professional. My hood was made bespoke for the car, that same hood would defo not fit on yours!
I also got the dude to fit a set of alloy Griff struts which I picked up second hand and these have helped tremendously.
The Wedge struts tend to reach maximum stretch and then relax a little just before they lock in position. The griff struts stretch and then lock in position fully tensioned with a solid clunk and full stretch. If you are going to do the job yourself then make sure you tension the hood correctly or when you lock the hood in place with the standard black struts you might end up with ripples in the rear window plastic when the standard rear hood struts let a bit of tension off when locked.
MikeyB
Dont agree with you...
I've already stripped the old hood off the rear end to allow for the spray job I'm doing. I'll get autohoods to use my old one as a template - the centre section is straight forward enough. In fact my centre section never fitted correctly in the first place and I've had to re- shape it to fit correctly.
I'm restoring the whole car and intend to do it for under 2k. I've already prepped and primed the bodywork ready for its new colour including sorting out the gel cracks. From what I have seen in terms of how the car has been made -putting in a new hood is straight forward enough - the excellent piece from the S Series site only re-affirmed my initial thoughts.
The only thing I'm leaving to the pro's are re-trimming the seats, dashboard and armrests due to the amount of stitching involved
By the time I'm finished, I'll be able to offer cut price bodywork repairs, hood & carpet fiting all for a sensible price from a guy passionate about Wedges...
I've already stripped the old hood off the rear end to allow for the spray job I'm doing. I'll get autohoods to use my old one as a template - the centre section is straight forward enough. In fact my centre section never fitted correctly in the first place and I've had to re- shape it to fit correctly.
I'm restoring the whole car and intend to do it for under 2k. I've already prepped and primed the bodywork ready for its new colour including sorting out the gel cracks. From what I have seen in terms of how the car has been made -putting in a new hood is straight forward enough - the excellent piece from the S Series site only re-affirmed my initial thoughts.
The only thing I'm leaving to the pro's are re-trimming the seats, dashboard and armrests due to the amount of stitching involved
By the time I'm finished, I'll be able to offer cut price bodywork repairs, hood & carpet fiting all for a sensible price from a guy passionate about Wedges...
GV said:
By the time I'm finished, I'll be able to offer cut price bodywork repairs, hood & carpet fiting all for a sensible price from a guy passionate about Wedges...
Like to see know the end results on the cracks, as currently doing my nose cone - still, but thinking probably not a lot more to spray the whole car now ! As probably doing the wings and bonnet anyway
GV said:
Dont agree with you...
I've already stripped the old hood off the rear end to allow for the spray job I'm doing. I'll get autohoods to use my old one as a template - the centre section is straight forward enough. In fact my centre section never fitted correctly in the first place and I've had to re- shape it to fit correctly.
How much are you going to save by buying the hood from autohoods and fitting yourself?
SEvans said:
Dont agree with you...
I've already stripped the old hood off the rear end to allow for the spray job I'm doing. I'll get autohoods to use my old one as a template - the centre section is straight forward enough. In fact my centre section never fitted correctly in the first place and I've had to re- shape it to fit correctly.
How much are you going to save by buying the hood from autohoods and fitting yourself?
£425.00 ex VAT...
gsx600 said:
By the time I'm finished, I'll be able to offer cut price bodywork repairs, hood & carpet fiting all for a sensible price from a guy passionate about Wedges...
Like to see know the end results on the cracks, as currently doing my nose cone - still, but thinking probably not a lot more to spray the whole car now ! As probably doing the wings and bonnet anyway
How I dealt with the cracks on my rear bumper after last year's petrol station bump was to use a small burr (as used in aerospace to fettle turbine blades!) in a Dremel-style drill to open the cracks out, back to something solid, and right down to the matting. You can even make an undercut to get more bite for the filler (I used the Isopon (P38?) with the chopped mat in it). A rubdown and touch-up of P40(?) filler, then primer, rubbed down and cellulose putty, more primer and another rubdown and by now I couldn't tell where I was supposed to be looking!
Now the bumper is still in primer and not yet back on the car: so far there's been no sinkage and no cracking but vibration might bring them back, only time will tell.
Once I'm happy with the bumper I'll use a similar technique on the stress cracks that appeared around the rear light unit in the same impact...
mikeb said:
West Country Trimmers charged £400 all in. Including Vat.
They also fitted extra thick windows plastic at the back (on my request) and fitted the struts at the same time.
I also got them to fit Stainless bolts (just in case).
MikeB
That's a good price...Authoods want £335 for the hood plus a fiting cost of £425.
And the guy who done it is a top bloke - traditional craftsman, right down to the cloth cap and brown overalls with pencils in the top pocket!
Had a load of other TVR's in their doing the roofs and some expensive looking classic porker's and ferrarri's. He also did all my carpets at the same time.
They ain't got a 'newfangled' website, the guy in charge reckons that all their business comes from word of mouth and recommendations. Had to find them using one of the west country business search engines.
MikeB
Had a load of other TVR's in their doing the roofs and some expensive looking classic porker's and ferrarri's. He also did all my carpets at the same time.
They ain't got a 'newfangled' website, the guy in charge reckons that all their business comes from word of mouth and recommendations. Had to find them using one of the west country business search engines.
MikeB
I just spoke to Guy at West Country Trimmers about a new roof for the Chim. He charges £400 plus VAT for a bespoke roof, fitted, and £400 plus VAT for a set of carpets, fitted. Looks like excellent value given that a hood and carpets cost about £350 ish each without fitting generally.
Gassing Station | Wedges | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff