New soft top - Required

[abmunro]

I've decided the time has come to bite the bullet and purchase a new soft top.

Who still supplies them and which is the best?

I've found

Monsoon car hoods £400.80 + fit your self ( is this S2 style)

M100 hoods. , no prices


Car hood warehouse £390 supply £665 supply and fit

Car hoods Northern £420 supply. £895 supply and fit


Any advice or reccomendations

[maz_r]

Just thinking, some prices might include the seals and some not? So apples with pears....

[epipete]

Of the suppliers you have listed, do you know anything about the specs? For eg:

Are their hoods made to order or ex Stock (m100 hoods is the old stock I believe)
Are they using the updated S2 or the older SE as the template?
Is there any colour choices
Are any seals included

I suspect that there are other considerations too.

M100 Hoods are possibly the most original and comprehensive service that you listed but I won't go there (I have my reasons) so am quite interested in the others.

Pete

[theelanman]

have you dropped trimtech a line......
I had heard that they may still have some........possibly just seals....but you never know....
drop them a line and ask........Dean Holt at Trimtech....
cheers
G

[theelanman]

http://www.trim-technology.com/contact-us/

[simonbuk]

I tried to contact M100 but never heard a thing.

Then emailed Trim Technology, waited for about 3 weeks, contacted them again thanking them for the customer focused service. They got back apologising for their lack of response and told me to contact one of their agents M100 hoods.

I entered ground hog day............

[tb10]

I entered ground hog day............

[maz_r]

Tried calling them? I'm sure you have, but just in case....+44 1502 733501

Lets hope they don't refer you to TrimTech, in some kind of weird time/space vortex

[simonbuk]

This man would be at the other end of the phone knowing my luck -

[maz_r]

Haha

You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland....

[davidwoods1124]

Bought a new hood from monsoon, it's certainly different to the one I'm taking off (no channel for the looped braid for one).
Is anyone aware of fitting guidelines? Especially the removal and refitting of the header seal/hood joint.
Starting on that bit now - it looks like a "challenge" any help would be welcome

[simonbuk]

How have you got on with this ? Just saw the advert for the monsson hoods on ebay and thought it looked good value and reminded me of this thread. Assume the 400 pounds does not include fitting, does anybody know what they charge ? No email link on their adverts.

[simonbuk]

M100hoods said to me -

"The full hood kit is £1150 to include hood, seals (except A pillar and deck seals),  new webbing and elastics and of course a new rear window.

My hoods are manufactured to the S2 specifications hence they are wider but if you have an SE its straight forward to fit.

Cost of fitting is £200 for refurbishment of frame 

Labour to remove and re fit hood and frame and install new kit and seals £600-800 depending on time taken"

[daveiow]

If it's any help Car Hood Warehouse in Chessington replaced mine for about £700, that included new elastic and fitting but NO seals.
It must be about 2 years ago now but I was very pleased with the result
David

[epipete]

I assume that these suppliers listed are providing 'off the shelf' Hoods rather than creating from drawings plans etc?

I'm wondering if the actual drawings are available if they could be made elsewhere.

Does anyone know if the necessary plans are available?

Patently, this is off the cuff, blue sky thinking

[simonbuk]

I just went to see these guts that are local to my parents in Bromley, Kent.

http://www.carseatrepairs.com

He said he could supply and fit a mohair hood for £775. This is not including seals. Strange thing was that he said the hood would be coming from America ?

[abmunro]

So does this make grand total to fully fit approx £2k

M100hoods said to me -

"The full hood kit is £1150 to include hood, seals (except A pillar and deck seals),  new webbing and elastics and of course a new rear window.

My hoods are manufactured to the S2 specifications hence they are wider but if you have an SE its straight forward to fit.

Cost of fitting is £200 for refurbishment of frame 

Labour to remove and re fit hood and frame and install new kit and seals £600-800 depending on time taken"

[simonbuk]

Yep.

[davidwoods1124]

If anyone is interested. I have a brand new - boxed blue hood that is not now required. Yours for £300 plus postage. Not with seals though.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Strange thing was that he said the hood would be coming from America ?

Kee Auto Tops in the US (actually in Charlotte, NC - where I live) has been making Lotus approved tops for as long as M100s have been available in the US.
http://www.keeautotop.com/

Lotus gave them a proper body section to use to get their patterns right and they will make a top whenever they get an order.
Their pattern is for the SE version as the S2 never came over here.