Unecessary zipping and unzipping plastic window

[Colin Francis]

How to open the hood without having to unzip the window.
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Living in Ch-Ch and having to put the hood up and down 2 or 3 times a day
because of the weather I soon got tired of zipping and unzipping the rear
plastic window so I made myself a system that negates the unzipping /zipping
scenario..
Para rubber sell a floatee thing about 70 mm diameter with a 20 mm hole down the
center. Cost $8.95

Cut it to a length of about 840 mm
Cost 5c (Bandaid )

Insert a piece of light aluminium tube 700 mm long . This provides the necessary
stiffening.

Cost .. Nothing . (look in offcut box at your local Aluminium merchant)

Cover with a piece of soft fabric 1 meter wide rolled 2 or 3 times around the
tube and sew along the length of the tube . Tuck the surplus material width
into the center hole and tack with a few stitches to stop it coming out

Cost : $ 7.95

Cut a peice of soft fabric (I used a redundant sheepskin matress overlay) but
ideally a piece of black vinyl with a terry towel sewn to it would be better.

Lay this in the flat space the hood folds down into.

Take the cloth covered floatee and hold in the middle outside of the plastic
window and slowly fold the lid down. The plastic window folds around this . Just
prior to letting the top fold completely down roll the soft fabric ( in my case
sheepskin) back over the exposed folded window. The weight of the top holds
this in place .

THe advantages I see are no zipping and unzipping. The plastic window is
completely encased in soft non scratch fabric on both sides and is also
protected from harmful UV rays and there is no hothouse effect whilst the hood
is down .

AND more importantly there is no creasing of the plastic window leaving
permanent marks .

I am sure someone has done this before as I used a similar system on another
brand of soft top.

If anyone has a web page they could place pics on I can email them the pics and
data if it helps .


Regards .

Col

[MX5PWR]

I would almost bet dollars to dough nuts that I could unzip the rear window
and have the top down while still sitting in the drivers seat, before you
had got out of the car, opened the boot (or is that trunk?) located the
sheepskin clad appendage, placed it in the right location making sure there
are no sharp bits sticking out and then lower the roof. And the of course
when it starts to rain, a quick stop, a flick of the wrist and the top is
back up while you are still getting out of your car.

Or maybe I just like being a contortionist !!!

[Colin Francis]

On Sun, 8 Feb 2004 13:47:14 +1300, you wrote:

I would almost bet dollars to dough nuts that I could unzip the rear window
and have the top down while still sitting in the drivers seat, before you
had got out of the car, opened the boot (or is that trunk?) located the
sheepskin clad appendage, placed it in the right location making sure there
are no sharp bits sticking out and then lower the roof. And the of course
when it starts to rain, a quick stop, a flick of the wrist and the top is
back up while you are still getting out of your car.

I sort of don't have sharp bits sticking out from the sheepskin . The sheep was
removed from the skin years ago . No trouble finding it . It lives in situ .
And how do you protect your window from scratching ? . Laying under the hood
unprotected is the worst thing for it . And laying in the sun is not healthy
for it either.

Or maybe I just like being a contortionist !!!

Not a career I thought anyone would actually like


Col