Hood strap replacement

[Paul.P]

My 2 hood straps are about knackered, although the hood is in good condition. Thought i read somewhere, someone managed to replace there's , but can't find it. What i need to know is where to get the elastic straps from, & how to do it, presuming its a diy job, or have i got to have a new hood ?

[Paul.P]

Anyone any ideas on this please ?

[Specky]

Can you purchase component parts from Trim Technology


TTFN

[Paul.P]

Probably can Dave, i am sure there was a write up on here not so long ago, from somebody who had done this, but ive searched high & low & cant find it. It looks like the hood has got to come off, & will probably knacker the seals ?, if so it might be cost effective to have a new roof, but didn't want to go that way unless its neccessary ?

[Specky]

Probably can Dave, i am sure there was a write up on here not so long ago, from somebody who had done this, but ive searched high & low & cant find it. It looks like the hood has got to come off, & will probably knacker the seals ?, if so it might be cost effective to have a new roof, but didn't want to go that way unless its neccessary ?

The reason I say... Sy mentions a bit @ the start

Option two ... Check this out

TTFN

[chrisP]

Paul
Before I changed my hood for an S2 type I replaced the elastic straps with the roof in situ. I would get the straps from Trim tech if you can as I had to make my own from strips of elastic material. You need to drill the old rivets out and then carefully replace, its not a nice job but it is do-able if your careful
Chris

[Dico]

Or just strip down a pair of your old undies?

[Gary]

Some-one had to say it didn't they

[theelanman]

he could use braces but then he'd need a fan belt to keep his pants up!!
lol

[chrisP]

oh dear, didn't take long for that to happen

[Paul.P]

, good un guy's !

Chris, ive looked at the hood, & cant see any way of getting to the rivets without taking the canvas off, & i'm told that knackers the seals ?, if you can shed some light on your method, i would be very grateful ?

[Dave Eds]

Paul

there are enough holes in my roof for you to check anything you like - guess I'd better bring it to the East Mids wannabe Ferrari Meet tomorrow after all

[Monty]

:lol: , good un guy's !

Chris, ive looked at the hood, & cant see any way of getting to the rivets without taking the canvas off, & i'm told that knackers the seals ?, if you can shed some light on your method, i would be very grateful ?

Paul, i`m sure u can piot the bars round from the inside to get to the rivets on some of them u may need to drop the hood slightly.

[chrisP]

Paul
As far as I can remember when the elastic had perished the two bars would spin round one way or the other so accessing the rivets was easy. the ones that are near the windscreen were difficult to get to, and I can't remember if I just ground them away with a file rather than drilling them out. Although access is far greater when the hood is half way up, you can move the canvas out of the way quite easily.

Chris

[Ultimatt]

Paul,

I managed to completely replace the elastic on my old SE hood and it did a great job of resurrecting the roof for a couple of years. Prior to me doing it, the old elastic was sagging by a good 4+ inches (and that's man inches, not woman inches ) The elastic and even the bars would regularly come free and twat me on the back of the head as I drove . Even when I got it replaced with the new S2 hood at Trim Tech, the replacement elastic was performing well and had not deteriorated.

From what I remember it only took one day of patience to do the job, with the help of my wife on some of the 4-handed jobs.

This is from memory so bare with me and ask questions if I've omitted details. I measured the width and approx length of the elastic required. Obviously buy more than you need to allow for mistakes, although the actual process is rather simple once you get going.

I went to the best local habedashery (?) shop and chatted up the lady behind the counter to enlist her help in sourcing the ideal substitute. They had some exact width elastic, but not quite the same tension strength, as the original.

You have to tackle the job with the hood open and lots of light pooring in, so ideally choose a good sunny day and do it on the dreiveway. (might have missed your chance there ) If you have a Dremmil style mini dril, that was the best option for drilling out the existing rivets. All of them are accessible, but the ones that rivet from behind the rear tension bar (behind and above your head) are the most challenging to access. You will have to take off all the furrry strips protecting the hood from the frame components, so either keep these in good order or try to source an alternative replacement.

Reattaching was straight forward, with the only challenging part being the reattachment of that strip behind the rear bar again. For me, it appeared impossible to get the rivets in from the back side of the bar, and therefore I opted to lap the elastic over the top and back round to the front side. Here I drilled new holes for rivets and rivetted from the front. It looked very neat and had the same tensioning characteristics as the original.

Make yourself very familiar with the original route / layout of the elastic before you preceed, so you know exactly which points are fixed and which are not. I believe I used some tailor's chalk to mark the points where I needed to fix the elastic. I put the hood in the closed position and tensioned the elastic as required. This needs to be quite tight and is where that extra pair of hands come in 'handy' With the hood closed and the elastic being held under tension in the correct place, mark with your tailor's chalk where the edge of each of the frames comes on the elastic. Then, once you open the roof to provide you with the space to rivet the elastic in place, you can see exactly where it needs to be done to provide the perfect tension when closing again.

Ensure both elastic lengths are maintained the same throughout the process. Same lenghts when cut to start and tension both to the same lengths when refitting.

I am no mechanic or upholstery expert and this job was one of the first ventures into such an improvement. It prove straight forward to do with the help of a willing other. Go for it, take it slow and step-by-step and you should be fine.

Let me know if I can be of any more help and I'll try.

Matt

[Ultimatt]

As a further note to your challenging access to some rivets.... Cut the elastic! You're going to replace it anyway. The bars will then swing freely and allow you unhindered access to the rivets for drilling.

Matt

[RatHead]

When I was looking at getting my straps replaced I got a quote to do it for £130 (through someone Chris Foulds uses) - I think that was without removing seals etc. As my seals were all worn though - I decided on a new roof fitted by Trim Technology instead.

[Ultimatt]

Noooo... Don't go paying someone good money for a job like this
It really is a straightforward task and requires no removal of any seals, or anything not directly attached to the elastic.

Save youself the money and spend it on an Everest chip and a bunch of flowers for the wife / girlfriend instead

Then again... If you can afford a new hood.... Go for it. I did!

Matt

[Paul.P]

Matt, thats brilliant, thanks very much, will source parts whilst blacky's in bodyshop next week, & do the job as soon as she comes out ?

[Ultimatt]

Haven't looked at a map Paul, but if Oakham is not too far away(I'm sure it's the other end of the country), and you don't mind the trip, I'm happy to put a day aside to help you do the job.

Be nice to see Blacky in the flesh too

Matt