Morris Minor Owners Club

Well, the hood finally arrived, nice Mohair. Problem is that there are no instructions, the maker is away and the internet shows no pics of how it gets nailed to the timber at the front or the back.

Does anyone have personal experience of how far round the waist rail it gets nailed? Looking at the original handbook it suggests to me that it only gets nailed between the boot hinges and the outer bits are only held down by the lift-the-dot fasteners. Doing it this way and not screwing through the hood into the rearmost hood rail makes it very tidy when you fold it, as per the image. Must pics on the internet suggest that other ideas have been used, including screwing the hood to the frame in places.

At the front I assume the fabric is folded right under the front rail and nailed to the lowest face of the wooden rail, just aft of some sort of foam seal? After that, how does the 'scarf' thingy get affixed to the rail. The Hidem banding holds the top edge of it but what about the bottom? Does anyone have photos of a well-sorted hood or an original one?

Did the hood rails ever get any padding? What about the ends?

If some kind soul could furnish me with a thousand photos of their hood then I'd be eternally grateful.

Rob

hfh200@hotmail.co.uk

I have disassembled mine and I would say it went together in this order .
Frame screwed to rail
Rail and the part of frame fixed to rail covered in hood material .
A strip of material about 1" wide fixed to outside front of rail that and covered with hide strip.
There was some foam padding on the top of the rail.

On the rear of mine it is all lift the dot , but this is non standard , I would use screws here .
I don't know if mine is fixed correctly , but it may help

Top fella!

Thanks for that. I've got quite a lot extra material at the front so I might copy that plan but run the hood all the way back round the wood and screw the metal to the wood after the canvas has been trapped in place, if that makes sense. One less joint for the water to get in through. The strip making a flap at the front is an openable double skin and I did wonder if it was meant to go like yours at the top and nail underneath the wood at the bottom. Your drawing makes more sense. Does there need to be some sort of foam on the underside of the wood to squish the gaps closed?

For the back and hood bag I also plan to substitute something different. Tenax fasteners mean less chance of ripping the fabric and you cut far fewer holes in the material.

Rob
I will take some further photos in the next day or two. In the meantime, yes Jim's schematic is good. The hood wraps around the front wooden rail and in my case was stapled with a pneumatic stapler onto the back of the rail, incredibly fast and efficient. The double strip is then stapled onto the front of this with the bottom piece laying flat onto the top of the windscreen surround, this forms a reasonable seal and prevents water entry, don't cut the ends off this strip as they are left to protrude at each end, they don't flap. The edge of the flap is then covered with the Hidem band, with the little metal fixings as supplied on the ends. This banding was stapled , you have probably been supplied with nails, stapling is much quicker but whatever you use is covered up by the closure of the front of the banding. You might also neatly cut the holes for the hood catches before finalising fitting.
The front end of the hood wraps under and around the wooden rail and was stapled again. No foam in necessary. On mine this left the top of the rail looking rather untidy from the inside, but cannot be seen from the outside. I will tidy it up sometime. I had taken the step of painting the frame before the hood fitting so that has helped.
On the rear mine is screwed under the little flap with cup washers and screws which should have been supplied. There are two FTDs at the bottom of the joins in the material, I will check how many screw fixings and advise, probably 4 or 5.
Pictures to come, hopefully!
Colin

Thanks Colin. I see that Jim has his hood stopping at the Hidem banding rather than continuing back under the wood. I was going to tack the hood in place at the front and then fit the frame back on top of the hood material so that the Mohair is trapped between wood and steel. That would help keep the water out. I'm not sure how to finish the outermost bits so that no wood is visible. Any pics of your would be handy for that.
So, both skins of the front flap get tacked together to the wood by the Hidem? I had assumed that one skin was above and one below.

I've ditched the press studs and Lift-the-dots for some Tenax from Woolies. Less stress on the fabric and few holes to be cut.

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Rob
Further to your latest note, yes I think you are correct, the hood does finish on the front of the wood at the screen end. So the back of the wood does look somewhat tatty. I drilled the old holes into the wood because they had been overused, glued, dowelled and trimmed. The new screws then went in nicely.
At the back there are 3 screws as you see, between the boot lid hinges, plus one at the very front corner. Again my wood piece was delaminating, so was glued back together. The holes drilled and dowelled. I suggest you make a hole through the cloth with a sharp point or bradawl for the screw, don't drill or cut.The screw will go through using its thread. The LTDs are obvious, you might need these with a longer thread.
You should fit the back first, then stretch over to the front, but not too tight, staple etc. Probably best with four hands for this bit. Carefully mark centre lines first on both car and hood.
best of luck
Colin

Oooops. Pics didn't work, Colin.

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Rob
sorry, didn't get the hang of it first time. Hope these are OK?
Colin

That's great, Colin. Thanks.

It does look like the dark piping curls sideways beneath the hidem banding and the hood canvas folds back under the woodwork. I think I've now got enough info to work with.

Cheers!

Rob

Let's see some photos of yours , I have to fit a new hood to mine and I am not looking forward to it . Is yours PVC or cloth ? A pro told be to put a heater in the car and get it hot, but guess that only applies to PVC ?

So far I've just hung it loosely in place...[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Rob
It's a good start!!
Colin

It has to be a tight fit so when you pull the front rail on to the two pins on top of the windscreen it has to be held down tight as you screw up the locking wing nuts or it flaps like a flag at speed. Ours is 1 inch short when you have to pull it down on to the pins. The frame is covered at the front as well.

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Well, I'm getting there. I decided to roll the roof back under the wood and then all the way up so the metal frame screws to the wood and holds the hood fabric in place. I used Tenax at the back to make it easier to remove and to make fewer cuts in the fabric. Still got to make the corners up tomorrow after working out the best method.

You are making it look easy !

I've got to make the sidescreens next. That won't look so easy. Bending stainless steel channel isn't fun at all.

So far I'd say it has taken 4 hours from getting the hood out of the bag to the current state. Maybe 5.5 hours for the whole thing. The longest job was cutting the tiny holes for the Tenax.

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I had a look at the early Lowlight handbook here and it shows the hood to not be screwed to the metal frame bows at all, despite my own hood bows having screw holes in them. With no screws put in it is sooooo simple to tidily fold the hood down and slip the bag on, plus, the celuloid screen doesn't get folded at all. I noticed that some of the cars in the "Original" book have these screws added to them.

Rob
I have the two bolts through the hood on the rearmost frame, as shown previously. It was recommended that an old towel rolled up be inserted into the window fold to stop it creasing, this appears to work well. I now fold the hood to the recommended method in the manual, again this works well and the bag fits really easily.
Your "old" frame looks good, even with the front bar looking rather strange before fitting it properly.
Colin

Rob

Did you leave the ends loose as shown in your last photo or did you attach to the end of the wooden header rail somehow?

Mike