Adjusting front of soft top

[Megwenda]

*****edit I have just found this described in the service manual p.60, so nothing new *****


From all the posts I have read, I have always understood there are only two adjustments that can be made to the roof top (well, three if one considers the eccentric bolt that adjusts the tension bars that press the back of the hood on to the storage cover)

-) At the B post
-) At the hood latches

I have also seen how some owners have either used silkaflex or a rubber seal to try and get the top to seal against the header rail on top of the windscreen

Well, while battling with mine, I accidentally discovered there is another adjustment, which moves the header seal further forward (or back, as the case may be), which helps it seat firmly against the header rail, and also tightens the top a bit.

There are two bolts on each side at the front of the hood, as shown in pic below. The holes for these are elongated.
Loosen these, and one can move the top backwards and forwards... provided it is not under tension, in other words, fold the top into the storage compartment before loosening the bolts

[Jamie N]

Dave, there is also another method whereby you can give the header seal a bit more "squash" i.e making it tighter to the ledge its sits on, that is to remove the hood latch female parts (providing they are not rusted solid) and back them out with 3 or 4 mm washers, thus making them sit slightly lower and having a tighter pull when you close the hood, obviously this will have an impact on the side parts of the header seal in relation to the side windows as well but there will be some situations where this may be beneficial.

[Megwenda]

Thanks for the tip.

[Steve A]

When trying to get the front of the hood tighter I find that the middle goes tight to the screen leaving gaps on either side
as though the roof's front edge is slightly more curved than the screen

[Jamie N]

When trying to get the front of the hood tighter I find that the middle goes tight to the screen leaving gaps on either side
as though the roof's front edge is slightly more curved than the screen

That's certainly been the case on the 3 Elans i have owned Steve, all of them curved away from the ends by around 5mm, that created a problem when fitting the rubber header seals i done, the solution was to add a tapered section of similar material to the windscreen header trim to fill the gap, the hard part is blending it in seamlessly and making a virtually invisible join. It could also be done with Epoxy resin and sanded ,then the whole thing sprayed with satin black, done well this can yield a very tidy solution, the easy way would be to fill the gap with black Butyl (like really sticky chewing gum) but its difficult to make it look pretty with that stuff and it also tends to stick to the header seal too tightly if you dont cover it with clingfilm or vaseline etc.

[morciii]

I have the exact same problem Steve, although the gap is wider at the passenger side oddly, and the passenger side is the only side that lets water in

[Steve A]

If I was having a new roof fitted (which I'm not) I'd seriously look into adding more "material" to the front leading edge on either side
but I'm not about to rip my roof off to do it.
I'b be interested to see what the front of the roof looks like without the material on it.