Chimera hood

[kriss5154]

Hi All
I thought I found on web, split roof like on S Series I find the one piece really heavy to handle on my own as I get older, also storage is difficult, if any one knows of two piece also is quality good 😊

[phillpot]

The roof comes off on a Chimaera? ...

[pb450]

I bought a second hand one and chopped it in half! Much easier to handle and store in boot. Very pleased with the results as it was completeley waterproof at the weekend at Silverstone. And we saw some rain....

Agreed, second hand items don't come along that often but if you're really brave, you can cut your primary roof panel in half. Many have. It just takes fractionally longer to fit up again on the car but the added value of having better storage in the boot (and not chipping the paint on the rear wings!) is well worth it. Oh and of course, each panel is half the weight of the full item.

Will attemp to upload pic separately, as I can't do it on work PC.

[pb450]

Artwork is a bit iffy but long term plan is to have it recovered if the split is successful - which it certainly is!

PS. Someone is now producing a split roof commercially. No idea on quality or fit but it’s not cheap. Also, you’ll need to factor in cost of having it covered as these items come in bare material. I reckon you’ll be looking at the thick end of £700 in the end.

With a couple of catches to pull the two halves together, plus a strip of self adhesive foam rubber, mine stands me at £150 so far. Very pleased.

Edited by pb450 on Thursday 1st August 08:36

Edited by pb450 on Thursday 1st August 08:38

[ChimpOnGas]

Here's my folding Surrey top with Dave The Trimmer's rear roof section where he also fits his slightly smaller rear window design for ease of folding and a neater look.



Dave The Trimmer supplied a bolt of top quality German Soninland mohair, half of this same roll of material was used to make the Surrey top and the other half was used by Dave to make my rear section, this ensured both sections match perfectly and they will age at the same rate to remain matching throughout their life.

For me the pairing of the folding Surrey top with Dave's smaller window rear section makes for the perfect Chimera soft top combination and I use my TVR throughout the winter and in all weathers, that should tell you all you need to know about the excellent and extremely user friendly Surrey top.

I did make sure there was enough material left over to cover my original hard panel too but in over four years I haven't bothered to do this simply because since I bought the Surrey top and the matching trimming work was completed I haven't felt the need to fit my hard panel once.

I designed the tank element of my Chimaera LPG conversion to take the original hard panel and sill leave room for enough luggage for two people to tour Europe for a couple of weeks.



Pop the original one piece roof in, and despite enough fuel to take me 450 miles without stopping there's really no loss of luggage space at all....



So I didn't need buy the Surrey top to solve a particular space problem as such, I bought it because when I'm touring with a full boot of luggage I can get to the Surrey top immediately.





Whereas before I'd have to unpack the entire boot to get the original targa panel in & out

The Surrey top really is a super bit of kit, it certainly does save a lot of space and it's very easy and light to handle, but for me it's best feature is you can just pop it on top of a fully packed boot. With the Surrey top if you suffer a sudden cloud burst you can have the roof on in seconds, but if you're using the original hard panel and have a full boot then your luggage, passenger, and interior are all going to get soaked as you desperately unpack to get at the original hard panel.

I can highly recommend the Surrey top, more on the project here:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...