Hood woes

[davidj]

Hi, I am trying to fit a hood onto my S3. I estimate it was manufactured in the early '80's so is around 40+ years old. It has never been fitted, there were no fixing or even holes for fixings and it is in good condition and flexible. I have fitted several hoods in the past and understand the importance of heat to get a good fit, warm day/heat gun etc. However, I am struggling in this case. For example, with the tongue fitted in the windscreen and the hood over the erect frame but without even attaching it to the rear it is impossible to connect both the door poppers at the time no matter how much it is pulled or heat applied. It is about 30mm clear on the passenger side.

I am coming to the conclusion the hood has been made incorrectly, shrunk over the years or the vinyl is just not sufficiently flexible anymore. However, before I take out a second mortgage and buy another, anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers.

[elanfan1]

Do all the fasteners up without putting the hood frame up. Start putting the frame up and put a heater in the car. Slowly raise until hopefully it fits

[Elan45]

sit the car out in the hot sun and gradually pull on the hood to stretch it onto the attachment points.

When I bought my Super Safety in September 1974, it came w/o a hood, and I found out about B & O breaker yard and I was able to buy a used hood from them. We stretched as far as we could, but ended up wiring it onto car. Some places , the hood was as much as 2 or more inches away, but I ended up driving it home w/ the hood attached with the pieces of wire. This was in Indiana in October and the 70 mile return trip was much warmer than the trip to B&0 in the first place..

Roger.

[davidj]

Thanks for your replies; I will wait until the next heatwave and try again (Sue Miller is out of stock at the moment anyway) Don't hold out much hope. even if I attempt to push in all the rear studs with the hood loose, i.e not over the frame or connected to the windscreen, I cannot get the passenger door stud to connect.

[rgh0]

I think the intent described was to connect the windscreen and studs with the hood support down and and door open and then push up the hood support over time while heating the hood to stretch the tight points slowly.

If you cant get the studs connected with the hood support down then you need to stretch that area until you can.

cheers
Rohan

[Elanman99]

My S4 hood shrank when it was in storage for a long time, nothing I did was able to stretch it.

I am sure it is the cloth that shrinks not the plastic covering, Cloth does stretch, but not very much, so I bought a new one from MM.

Ian