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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - softtop: cloth or PVC?

What would you recommend?
a.o. arnold

For me personally the top is only there to protect the interior the few times I have it up when I'm caught out in the rain.....a cheap PVC one...they are also easy to keep clean and new looking, the thinner they are the easier and flatter they fold....

Mike
M F L Sherrit

just fitted a pvc one could not justify the extra cost for little use as will be up minimal time took some photos when fitting thought they may help others.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/markythesparky/sets/72157633862111410/
mark 1500 nearly on the road

That appears to be a well fitted hood. Nice work.
Sandy
PS. I love the red shade. It's rich.
DARNOC31

Its the corner bits above the windscreen I have problems with. How do they go?
Dave Squire

a.o.,
if you are actually going to use the car then PVC, easier to clean and keep waterproof, very durable and long lasting

if the car is for show and pampering then cloth as it requires more attention to stop it marking up and it doesn't matter about keeping it waterproof - which I'd have thought is important where you live

I'd never recommend getting a cheap hood, they're not cut to the right size so will never fit well no matter how hard you try and it's obvious to all that they don't fit right

as for folding - follow the instructions in the Driver's Handbook and you should have no problems - I don't fold my hood if the temperature is much below 5C as this risks the plastic windows on the hood cracking or splitting plus at below this temperature fixing the hood when raised gets difficult

on my previous Spridget I had a Don Hood (and fitted by them) and it looked superb and the fit was excellent, when funds allow I will replace the 6 year old cheap, worn, ill fitting, hood that came with my present midget
Nigel Atkins

i got a don trimming hood and the corners above the windscreen had a piece on that formed a kind of pocket that made the corner as in pics link above.
mark 1500 nearly on the road

Mark, I'm not saying it's wrong cos I don't know and your seal is a different profile to the last two header rail seals I've got - is the lip of the seal supposed to be at the back or front (cabin or outside side)?

I've had to develop a system of tucking the seal in on mine to stop weeps of water getting passed when the hood is closed (but my seal is a different profile to yours)
Nigel Atkins

I turned the seal round after i had taken the pictures because it was difficult to close ,there is a little recess on one side of the seal that seemed to help the seal sit on the top of the windscreen
mark 1500 nearly on the road

yes that makes more sense

my seal doesn't have such a pronounced lip but does have the recess too

if (and you may well not) you get water weeping in at that seal let me know and I'll send you my quick notes on what I do, it shouldn't be necessary but I find it is plus it means I don't have to have the clips so tight that I can't use them in winter (but they're not loose especially when it's colder)
Nigel Atkins

Fitting the front correctly is near impossible unless you park the car in the sun and get it real warm, otherwise it won't stretch and you get a gap as in Mark's pics. Even on a 100 degree f day I still couldn't stretch it enough to get a good fit. another problem is the contact adhesive grabs the whole shebang while your trying to stretch it, really this is a job for two experienced hood fitters. HTH Cheers Rod
R W Bowers

I got a Mohair top this year from PJM-motors in Shropshire.
Was pleased with my vinyltop but after 15 years it was due to replacement.
Thats wen I thought I try a mohair as it looks nice/less plastic.

It was a tough job to get it on in the way it is now but must say Im very pleased with it, they did a great job in fitting it.
They stayed very polite altough the hood wouldnt fit at first.
A Mohair hood should be 1cm wider then the Vinyl to make it fit as nice, remeber that when you hav one made.

I find the mohair much more flexible then the vinyl ones, easyer to fold and in combination with their rubber it shuts realy good on the top of the screen.
Had some torrential rain last 2 weekends and not even a drop came in.
My old vinyl was literly pissing it in normal rain.

Roughly said Mohair can be up to twice the price of vinyl but in the other side the life-span of a vinylhood is about 10 year.
Life-span Mohair is about 20 year.
So in the end you probably spend as much.


Arie de Best

other angle,
nice fit with outzippable rearwindow


Arie de Best

a well fitted vinyl hood will not let water in, even my cheap ill fitting vinyl hood doesn't let water in
Nigel Atkins

Like Nigel says my hood doesn't leak it just isn't pretty. Oh and the seal is pipe lagging I fixed up as everything is messed up on the front rail by a PO! (Some of my Po's just had no idea how to do anything). Yesterday even in some fantastic downpours and water coming up out of the drains in the road and water being thrown at my car by lorries going the other way it didn't leak.

I was: Snug as a bug in a rug!
Dave Squire

To be honest, my vinyl roof has been excelent in not leaking for years but got old and started to rip open at seams and eventualy also the sealingrubber at the front didnt seal properly anymore.

So mohair isnt perticulairy better then vinyl in that mather but it was eventualy in my case. :)
Surely a new vinyltop would have done the same great job last weekends!!

Arie de Best

Arie,
I just surprised that a red blooded chap like yourself went for mohair and in a light colour - sorry but it's only ever black PVC for whatever colour the car is, but then I don't like any flowers either
Nigel Atkins

This thread was discussed between 22/10/2013 and 24/10/2013

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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