Vitesse Convertable hood fixings

[Rich]

Hello all,

 

I'm half way through sorting out my Convertable hood and frame but wondering how the rear of the hood fixes to the rear deck of the car?

 

When I took it off I had to unscrew each popper base and the screw just looked like a normal wood screw! Should they be pop riveted onto the car or are they supposed to be screwed?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Rich

[Steve C]

Hi Rich

 

You can use pop rivets, or small machine screws with nuts and lock washers, or self-tappers, and I have seen all three on various cars! The latter tend to be used when the holes have become elongated or enlarged, so that a pop rivet can't get a good bite one the back of the metal. Whatever you use, the critical thing is to make sure that the fastener sits nice and low down inside the pop button. If you don't, what then happens is that when you come to fit the hood cover with the hood down, you won't be able to get the other half of the fastener to pop on.

I prefer machine screws, because they go on nice and tight, even if the holes are a bit iffy, and you don't have the faff of drilling them all out when you come to change a hood. Just make sure the hood is nicely centred - a strip of masking tape dead centre on the deck panel and some careful measuring will help. Good luck, and take your time.

 

Regards

 

Steve C

[Pete Lewis]

If you pop rivet you need a long nozzle and of a diameter to seat inside the popper base.

a std pop gun wont fit/clamp

pete

[Rich]

Many thanks for all your replies, i think I'm going to go down the screw and bolt route as you say Steve i don't want to be drilling them out.

 

Regards 

 

Rich

[Gary Flinn]

You want to nip to an Electrical Wholesaler or Screwfix and get some M3.5 Countersunk Electrical Switch/Socket screws and a box of M3.5 Nuts and washers too. 

 

This is what I used on my Vitesse Convertible and they are a perfect fit inside the hood poppers and BZP plated so will not rust

 

Take a New Hood popper with you just to make sure they fit snuggly?

 

I paid less than a Tenner for 100 Screws, nuts and washers.

.

[68vitesse]

Also good for fitting wooden dashboard.

[Steve C]

And as a follow-on to Pete's point about pop rivet guns not having a riveting head that will fit inside a pop fastener, he is dead right!

 

I got around this by finding a bolt of the same thread as the four riveting heads that came with my Stanley rivet gun, clamping it up straight in the drill vice on my bench drill and drilling it down the middle to the same diameter as a rivet pin. I then cut a portion of the thread to the required length, and because I don't have a lathe, clamped it in the drill chuck and used a file to "turn" off the threads on the part that was to become the "nose", and chamfered the edges to finish. It works, but machine screws are a lot easier! Great tip from Gary about the Screwfix M3.5 screws, I will try those!

 

Regards

 

Steve C

[Rich]

Great,  many thanks for all your replies. Ive also begun to replace the webbing on the convertable hood which goes across the roof bars.  Does anyone know how to measure and fit the webbing ?

 

Once again many thanks

 

Rich

[Steve C]

Hi Rich

 

I used old seatbelt webbing to replace mine, and pop-riveted new "keeper plates" made from scrap stainless steel into the little recesses on the rear hood well lip, in the recesses on the two "floating" sticks which sit ahead of the rear window, then tensioning at the header rail end and used self-tappers on the front two keeper plates into the recesses in the front face of the header rail.

 

If the old webbing is still there, do one side at a time to keep the relative positions of the two rearmost hood sticks. If it has gone, you are going to need to do some accurate measuring from the rear hood edge to the seam above the window, which is where the rearmost stick needs to sit. Having the hood to hand, and using garden twine looped and tensioned around the sticks to hold them in their positions helps.

 

The webbing is clamped in four places along its length: rearmost hood well lip, the two rearmost sticks and at the header rail. The webbing is in two pieces, joined and angled on the rearmost stick, because it effectively changes direction here, and this cannot be accommodated with a single piece of webbing.

 

It sounds more complicated writing it down than it really is when you have the job in front of you. The important bits are making sure that the finished plates and fasteners sit nice and flat (or you will have pimples in your hood..) and getting the position of the rearmost sticks correct. A good oiling of all pivot points ahead of the job will also do no harm, but be sure to wipe up any excess.

 

Regards

 

Steve

[Rich]

Thanks Steve both pieces are rotten so time to measure ????

 

Regards

 

Rich

[Rich]

Well thats one side all in a nice and taught, does anyone know where i can get the clips that screw into the rear hood frame and which the chrome strip clips into?

 

Thanks

 

Rich

[Pete Lewis]

Start with bill at rarebits4classics

 

if you have a part number mick dolphins lists

 

pete

[Rich]

Thank you Pete

 

Regards