Discussion
As a result of hail stone damage (yes really and I live in East Yorkshire) I’ve decided not to have a re-stitched window but to replace the entire hood and roof fabric.
Has anybody got any advice hints or tips, I don’t suppose there’s a written up a how to guide about. I’ll take pictures myself and produce my own if not, but any thoughts or comments will be gratefully received.
Cheers,
Simon.
Has anybody got any advice hints or tips, I don’t suppose there’s a written up a how to guide about. I’ll take pictures myself and produce my own if not, but any thoughts or comments will be gratefully received.
Cheers,
Simon.
Find someone else to do it.
Seriously, this is a difficult job and your sanity may well prove to be worth more than the extra £300 or so to have someone just do the work.
Briefly, to change the hood:
Take off the stays from the hoop (the stays can stay attached to the car bodywork)
Unbolt the fibreglass bit from the back. There's 2 self tappers and 3 allen bolts (if memory serves). This is tricky and it helps to have small hands as the captive nuts aren't all that captive, and access to them is via reaching up above the fuel tank.
unbolt the hoop ends (careful not to lose the washers).
Remove the old fabric from the assembly. Carefully! You'll need it as a template. Then clean up the fibreglass bits - they need to be smooth and have all the glue removed.
The back of the new hood is then glued to the rear fibreglass section. This is again tricky and requires patience and cutting. Dry fit EVERYTHING first before cutting and gluing - the chances are the hood will need some modification to fit as all TVRs are a slightly different shape...
Once the back is done, refit it and the cleaned up hoop to the car.
You need to measure where the top will come before you can glue it. You only get one shot at getting this right when the glue goes on, so take care!! There should be a slight stretch put on the fabric, but not too much.
We glued the top to the hoop in 3 stages - top and 2 sides. This seemed to work OK.
Best of luck.
Seriously, this is a difficult job and your sanity may well prove to be worth more than the extra £300 or so to have someone just do the work.
Briefly, to change the hood:
Take off the stays from the hoop (the stays can stay attached to the car bodywork)
Unbolt the fibreglass bit from the back. There's 2 self tappers and 3 allen bolts (if memory serves). This is tricky and it helps to have small hands as the captive nuts aren't all that captive, and access to them is via reaching up above the fuel tank.
unbolt the hoop ends (careful not to lose the washers).
Remove the old fabric from the assembly. Carefully! You'll need it as a template. Then clean up the fibreglass bits - they need to be smooth and have all the glue removed.
The back of the new hood is then glued to the rear fibreglass section. This is again tricky and requires patience and cutting. Dry fit EVERYTHING first before cutting and gluing - the chances are the hood will need some modification to fit as all TVRs are a slightly different shape...
Once the back is done, refit it and the cleaned up hoop to the car.
You need to measure where the top will come before you can glue it. You only get one shot at getting this right when the glue goes on, so take care!! There should be a slight stretch put on the fabric, but not too much.
We glued the top to the hoop in 3 stages - top and 2 sides. This seemed to work OK.
Best of luck.
Hi Simon,
Haven't attempted the rear folding section but I re-covered the solid targa section just a couple of weeks ago and I'm in the process of putting together a 'how to' .doc
In the mean time there is one on the Griffith Pages that I found useful:
www.thegriffithpages.com/modifications/exterior-modifications/roof-recover---targa-.html
If you have access to a digital camera I'd go mad with it, whether or not you intend to produce your own guide take plenty of pictures of how you take the material off, seams, joins etc so you can re-cover the same as the original.
If you do the folding section I'd be interested to see how you did it.
Haven't attempted the rear folding section but I re-covered the solid targa section just a couple of weeks ago and I'm in the process of putting together a 'how to' .doc
In the mean time there is one on the Griffith Pages that I found useful:
www.thegriffithpages.com/modifications/exterior-modifications/roof-recover---targa-.html
If you have access to a digital camera I'd go mad with it, whether or not you intend to produce your own guide take plenty of pictures of how you take the material off, seams, joins etc so you can re-cover the same as the original.
If you do the folding section I'd be interested to see how you did it.
Thanks guy’s
I did seriously consider getting someone else to do it, however I have the time (a week off work already booked for gardening) and the my local trimmer, who is supply the roof said it was straight forward. Add that to the “How much” from the other half and you get my DIY decision.
Cheers,
Simon.
I did seriously consider getting someone else to do it, however I have the time (a week off work already booked for gardening) and the my local trimmer, who is supply the roof said it was straight forward. Add that to the “How much” from the other half and you get my DIY decision.
Cheers,
Simon.
Dave,
Thanks for the offer of help, I’m actually off work this week and next believe it or not my main job planed is to replace the barge/fascia boards on our house roof.
The Griff roof is on order and is not scheduled to arrive until Friday and weather permitting I’ll be up and down ladders this week, so with usual weekend stuff it look’s like it’ll be Monday before I get started.
Mail me a phone number through my profile and I’ll give you a call.
Cheers,
Simon
Thanks for the offer of help, I’m actually off work this week and next believe it or not my main job planed is to replace the barge/fascia boards on our house roof.
The Griff roof is on order and is not scheduled to arrive until Friday and weather permitting I’ll be up and down ladders this week, so with usual weekend stuff it look’s like it’ll be Monday before I get started.
Mail me a phone number through my profile and I’ll give you a call.
Cheers,
Simon
Simon,
Have just finished my 'how to' guide for re-covering the targa panel. Hope it's of some use?!?!?
www.groutledge.co.uk/targa-re-cover/targa-re-cover.htm
Have just finished my 'how to' guide for re-covering the targa panel. Hope it's of some use?!?!?
www.groutledge.co.uk/targa-re-cover/targa-re-cover.htm
The new rear hood is on and looks good.
It took me a day to strip and clean then another to fit and glue. There are a couple of minor issues that maybe could have been better though I’m well pleased with the results of my labour. I did take a few photo’s and notes and will put something together with more detail shortly.
Cheers,
Simon
It took me a day to strip and clean then another to fit and glue. There are a couple of minor issues that maybe could have been better though I’m well pleased with the results of my labour. I did take a few photo’s and notes and will put something together with more detail shortly.
Cheers,
Simon
Glancs said:
Simon,
Have just finished my 'how to' guide for re-covering the targa panel. Hope it's of some use?!?!?
www.groutledge.co.uk/targa-re-cover/targa-re-cover.htm
Have just finished my 'how to' guide for re-covering the targa panel. Hope it's of some use?!?!?
www.groutledge.co.uk/targa-re-cover/targa-re-cover.htm
I have to compliment you on the detail of your how-to guide to recovering the roof section
. It is well written and well illustrated, to the extent that I am seriously considering having a go
Cheers Hut49,
Good for you for having a go yourself :-) It's really not as difficult as you might imagine and there's a great sense of satisfaction for having done it yourself. I was worried I'd written too much... got a bit carried away with the detail of it, but the more info that's out there for everyone the better.
Good luck
G
Good for you for having a go yourself :-) It's really not as difficult as you might imagine and there's a great sense of satisfaction for having done it yourself. I was worried I'd written too much... got a bit carried away with the detail of it, but the more info that's out there for everyone the better.
Good luck
G
Glancs said:
Simon,
Have just finished my 'how to' guide for re-covering the targa panel. Hope it's of some use?!?!?
www.groutledge.co.uk/targa-re-cover/targa-re-cover.htm
Have just finished my 'how to' guide for re-covering the targa panel. Hope it's of some use?!?!?
www.groutledge.co.uk/targa-re-cover/targa-re-cover.htm
Respect for making this very informative site, I may be doing it myself with the help of this excellent guide.
Cheers
Fred
simon.b said:
The new rear hood is on and looks good.
It took me a day to strip and clean then another to fit and glue. There are a couple of minor issues that maybe could have been better though I’m well pleased with the results of my labour. I did take a few photo’s and notes and will put something together with more detail shortly.
Cheers,
Simon
It took me a day to strip and clean then another to fit and glue. There are a couple of minor issues that maybe could have been better though I’m well pleased with the results of my labour. I did take a few photo’s and notes and will put something together with more detail shortly.
Cheers,
Simon
Hi Simon - i'm about to change the hood on my Wedge. Glad to see you have joined the DIY brigade! As soon as you can whack up some pics, it will be good to see the route you took doing the back section as my concern is getting the tension right when locking up the hood stays.
Good, now you given me the motivation to get on with a write up.
The best tip I had was to keep it warm so I put a fan heater in the car sat on the transmission tunnel pointing at the rear screen to keep it all warm, locked the struts up and stood straddling the tunnel with the heater blowing between my legs
pulling the hood tight and dropping down onto the arch. Worked a treat and gives just the correct amount of pre-tension.
Still may take me a few days, but will get on with it.
Cheers,
Simon.
The best tip I had was to keep it warm so I put a fan heater in the car sat on the transmission tunnel pointing at the rear screen to keep it all warm, locked the struts up and stood straddling the tunnel with the heater blowing between my legs
pulling the hood tight and dropping down onto the arch. Worked a treat and gives just the correct amount of pre-tension. Still may take me a few days, but will get on with it.
Cheers,
Simon.
simon.b said:
Good, now you given me the motivation to get on with a write up.
The best tip I had was to keep it warm so I put a fan heater in the car sat on the transmission tunnel pointing at the rear screen to keep it all warm, locked the struts up and stood straddling the tunnel with the heater blowing between my legs pulling the hood tight and dropping down onto the arch. Worked a treat and gives just the correct amount of pre-tension.
Still may take me a few days, but will get on with it.
Cheers,
Simon.
The best tip I had was to keep it warm so I put a fan heater in the car sat on the transmission tunnel pointing at the rear screen to keep it all warm, locked the struts up and stood straddling the tunnel with the heater blowing between my legs
pulling the hood tight and dropping down onto the arch. Worked a treat and gives just the correct amount of pre-tension. Still may take me a few days, but will get on with it.
Cheers,
Simon.
Was that with the glue in place or dry? The vision I have is you pulling the hood up towards the roll over hoop and strecthing it over until there was some excess - correct? The heater inside is a tip I've heard of too.
I did a dry run to establish the best place to pull from. This turned out to be at the extremes of the flat portion of the hoop, the point where the radius starts to go down to the sides and resulted in a nice flat rear window. I folded the sides out of the way and only glued the top of the hoop and the corresponding area on the hood, then stretched it and lowered it into position. I then did the two sides separately.
Once this was done, I cut off the excess material and put in the darts to match the old removed roof then glued and wrapped over all the edges.
Cheers,
Simon.
Once this was done, I cut off the excess material and put in the darts to match the old removed roof then glued and wrapped over all the edges.
Cheers,
Simon.
simon.b said:
I did a dry run to establish the best place to pull from. This turned out to be at the extremes of the flat portion of the hoop, the point where the radius starts to go down to the sides and resulted in a nice flat rear window. I folded the sides out of the way and only glued the top of the hoop and the corresponding area on the hood, then stretched it and lowered it into position. I then did the two sides separately.
Once this was done, I cut off the excess material and put in the darts to match the old removed roof then glued and wrapped over all the edges.
Cheers,
Simon.
Once this was done, I cut off the excess material and put in the darts to match the old removed roof then glued and wrapped over all the edges.
Cheers,
Simon.
Gotcha....Know exactly what you mean. Once I've finished off my paint work that will be the next job!
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