hood fitting and tonneau

[SJ]

I now have a hood and tonneau to fit, should I fit the hood first and then the tonneau.

Should i use the markings on the body to fit the studs first and then tension the hood and mark the positions?

[Colin Newbold]

My experience to date on several Cobras would caution you to be very careful. If you might ever require a hard top (bubble type as opposed to Le Mans type) then the outline of the hardtop should determine where your lift-the-dot studs go - they should be slightly inside of that line so they are not exposed when the hardtop is on, neither should they fould the hardtop fitting in any way (although you will have to drill holes all round the hardtop flange probably so that it passes over the studs).

If you're not fitting the hardtop - ever - then my advice would be to fit the tonneau first, making sure its going to be stretched tight. As a rule of thum, you can follow the outline of the relaxed tonneau for the stud positions, which will mean its stretched once fitted. There are 8 studs either side of the filler cap. You need to refer to internet photos (or book photos) for their exact positioning - the distance between each is not uniform.

Anyone else?

Colin

[clive]

All I would add is Gerry has a liftadot punch which you can borrow.

[Richard B]

No, you should fit the tonneau, sell the hood & buy a good hat, coat & gloves.

If you keep your foot down, apart from some water coming round the screen & onto your right leg, you'll be dry !

[Roger King]

No, you should fit the tonneau, sell the hood & buy a good hat, coat & gloves.

If you keep your foot down, apart from some water coming round the screen & onto your right leg, you'll be dry !

A hard top?????????????

Blimey - I've done 8000 miles now and only a hanful of those with the hood up. And not a single one with the sidescreens in place - they've never left their envelope behind the seats.

Oh, and the 'keep moving and you'll stay dry' line is just not true, after 35 years of open-top motoring. Just dress properly.

[clive]

Trust me, and I know of two other Scotsmen who will back me up here, you sometimes need a hood. A nine hour drive in torrential rain on the way to Silverstone last year was testamount to that.

[Roger King]

Trust me, ...you sometimes need a hood....

...if you will live in the frozen, damp north...

[David Large]

All this "keep your foot down and you will keep dry" is in my experience absolute nonsense and anyway if the rain persists and you do not fit a hood it all builds up on the inside of the windscreen and you cannot see where you are going anyway.
Light rain -ok no hood and good waterproofs
Heavy rain - get under the hood, with or without sidescreens.

david

[Roger King]

All this "keep your foot down and you will keep dry" is in my experience absolute nonsense and anyway if the rain persists and you do not fit a hood it all builds up on the inside of the windscreen and you cannot see where you are going anyway.
Light rain -ok no hood and good waterproofs
Heavy rain - get under the hood, with or without sidescreens.

david

All this is exactly true.

[clive]

Trust me, ...you sometimes need a hood....

...if you will live in the frozen, damp north...

If I recollect, the rain started south of Carlisle.