Chimaera roof

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Bart
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Chimaera roof

Post by Bart »

Was washing Trev earlier, and put my hand through the rear window. Stitching just all rotten. Don't think it's worth having just the screen replaced, as the hood itself is past its best.

Has anyone any experience of diy fitting a replacement. Found rear section and new targa cover for 245+vat beer vouchers, but don't think I could afford to have it fitted professionally. Found a guide to fitting the fabric on the top bit: looks a piece of wee wee. Not sure about the back though. Looks like getting it nice and taught could be a pain. Anyone done it before?



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Eliot
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Post by Eliot »

I would ask over on pistonheads - should be plenty of chaps in the marque specific sections.
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DaveEFI
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Post by DaveEFI »

My guess is it would depend on how well made the replacement is as to how easy to get a good fit. Remember buying a cheap hood for a Spridget (very simple) and couldn't get a good fit. Eventually paid for a decent one which was easy.
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dnb
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Post by dnb »

Yes, I changed the rear hood on my Griffith a few years ago when the same thing happened to me. It was tricky, but not impossible. It took most of a day, but it looks like a factory fit item. Buy the right impact adhesive - most of the common ones don't have a sufficiently high temperature rating - and take great care dismantling so you can see where it will need pulling tight and where the slack needs to be.

From memory, the hood needs to be bonded to the base section first (it can be removed from the car with some difficult-to-get-to bolts above the fuel tank) and this sets where the main visible seam sits against the body work. Usual rules - measure the centre point and levelness at least twice before committing the glue!

This can then be refitted to the car and you can stretch the cloth over the hoop and peg it in place with the targa section to get the tension right and mark where it will bond to the hoop. Be careful - this is the difficult bit and it can take ages before it is acceptable. Then glue the hood to the hoop.

I was given a useful tip for working with impact adhesive - if you cover it with glossy brown paper, it won't stick so you can use two layers of this between surfaces so it can be pulled out by a corner when things are aligned. I doubted it, but it seemed to work for me.

Good luck! Sorry I don't have any good photos to hand - it was before the era of camera phones.

DaveEFI
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Post by DaveEFI »

Can you recommend a decent brand of impact adhesive for this job (and others)?

Evostick was once OK, bu they changed the formula. Probably used a solvent which is no longer PC. Lidl did a good one too - but not seen that on offer for ages, probably for the same reason.

BTW, if you need to adjust things slightly, there used to be impact ones which allowed this. One was Thixsofix.
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