Amphletize Posted February 17, 2018 Report Share Posted February 17, 2018 Hi all, The sun came out today! So I managed to get out and play for the first time! My car came fitted with a hard top, a frame for the soft top and the fabric top in a box, I have a couple of questions if someone would be so kind to help me... I've heard that fitting the roof to the frame can be a pretty difficult task, so I've contacted a couple of trimming companies in the area for a feel of prices. The two shops that have come back to me want between £400 and £500 to do this, which is way.... way over what I thought it was going to cost. So, doing it myself is back on the cards - unless anyone knows of any better value places in the Hampshire / Berkshire / Surrey areas? Or is that just how much it costs? If I am going to do it myself, is it really that difficult? Are there any instructions or useful resources I should know of? Secondly - I took the hard top off the car to enjoy it with no roof while I did some other bits, it came off just fine, but putting it back on proved difficult. The bolts that go through the top of the windscreen frame fit the roof fine, they screwed right in when going directly into the roof, however, when going through the frame (to attach the roof to the car) the bolts just don't screw in. They seem to reach the thread in the roof but they don't tighten, and they're very hard to get to line up with the holes in the roof. Am I missing something? The bolts are a bit miss-match, I'm planning on replacing them, but it was on just fine before! Apologies for the long post, I've attached a shot of the old girl with her top off for compensation... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anglefire Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 Can't help regarding the fitting of the hood to the frame - but can't see it being that hard - it mostly clips on as far as I can see. The bolts in the windscreen frame can get a bit chewed at the ends if they are incorrectly fitted - mine are a bit buggered - but pushing down on the roof whilst you put the screw in can help. Might need two people though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlubikey Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 Had the hard top popped down over the rear lip of the cockpit? I seem to recall on my old blue Spit that I would fix the front bolts loosely first, then socked feet on the top of the screen frame and push forward till the back popped into place, then put the rear bolts in and find the thread. As Anglefire says, easy to mash the threads if you're not careful. One more thing (it's ages since I put the hard top on my red Spit - memory failing!) but aren't the nuts of the floating captive variety? Try putting a finger underneath the lip of the cockpit and pushing the nut upwards to meet the bolt as you turn with the other hand may give you the extra mm you need. Cheers, Richard PS: Be careful not to tighten the bolts so hard the hardtop meets the deck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 15 hours ago, Amphletize said: My car came fitted with a hard top, a frame for the soft top and the fabric top in a box, I have a couple of questions if someone would be so kind to help me... I've heard that fitting the roof to the frame can be a pretty difficult task, so I've contacted a couple of trimming companies in the area for a feel of prices. The two shops that have come back to me want between £400 and £500 to do this, which is way.... way over what I thought it was going to cost. So, doing it myself is back on the cards - unless anyone knows of any better value places in the Hampshire / Berkshire / Surrey areas? Or is that just how much it costs? If I am going to do it myself, is it really that difficult? Are there any instructions or useful resources I should know of? Fitting a new hood is something I've never tried; there are plenty of instructions on how to do it on the Net, but I think it'll be very noticeable if you make a hoo-hah of it, and of course you want it to be watertight, as far as our hoods can be... like most jobs on our cars it's probably not that difficult if you take time and learn the pitfalls in advance. I may know someone local who can fit my Herald hood so I think I'll chicken out of doing it myself.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWT338J Posted February 18, 2018 Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 Amphletize Try googling TR6 soft top replacement. The technique is pretty much the same. Moss used to offer a fitting service. Make sure you fit the vinyl to the frame when it is warm (ideally hot) otherwise it will be full of wrinkles. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amphletize Posted February 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2018 Hi all, Thanks so much for the advice! We tried pushing the front down with no success, and lifting the rear of the roof to get a different angle on the front bolts, but no. @rlubikey - yes, the nuts do indeed rattle around (so to speak) which I don't think helped the task at all. In the end I bought a length of 8mm threaded bar and cut two 3 inch bolts (too long in the end so I'll have to trim them at some point). I screwed these into the roof first, then fed the bolts through the holes in the windscreen frame, once I had finger tightened the bolts at the back I tightened a nut with a washer from the inside at the front. Nice and secure :-) I'm going to tackle the soft top myself, but I'll wait for warmer weather. Thanks again, Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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