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Author: Subject: wanted; pictures of soft top and doors
martinnitram

posted on 9/12/17 at 02:32 PM Reply With Quote
wanted; pictures of soft top and doors

While weather has turned to 54hite ive started to fit the soft top to my striker.

Fitted the lift-the-dot's to the screen and rear end and clipped the top on to give it a stretch, next step is to make a fold up centre support for the roof and thinking of knocking up some doors.

Considering making a light metal frame with elbow room bent in, with polycarb skin which will bend to the shape of the frame, which should be fairly easy, but getting a decent seal to the roof I'm not sure of, don't want to end up with a pair of flapping wings hanging off the sides.

The Caterham doors look like they have a U shapes rubber channel over the top but cant find any decent close up pictures of how they fit into the roof seal, have googled without luck a few times.

Has anyone got some decent pictures of how the doors and roof all fit together, and some of the support frame would be a great help, plus open to suggestions by anyone that has already done this job.

Many thanks

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SJ

posted on 10/12/17 at 11:06 AM Reply With Quote
From what I've seen of Caterham roofs they don't really seal at all to the doors.

Mine just tuck under the canvas.

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martinnitram

posted on 10/12/17 at 01:55 PM Reply With Quote
Seal was probably the wrong word to describe how the doors 'meet' the roof.

Got any pictures of yours I can look at ?
Regards

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ian locostzx9rc2

posted on 10/12/17 at 02:35 PM Reply With Quote
If it’s a classic striker you can buy doors from Raw as for hood I made a half hood clipped on the front windscreen surround with poppers then poppers on the rollbar did this with both my strikers worked really well
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Toys2

posted on 10/12/17 at 04:05 PM Reply With Quote
This is the only picture I have, its my car as I bought it, pre renovation
Description
Description


The doors hinge in the normal way on the screen surround
The doors are fibreglass and just have a leaky foam seal along the bottom
The top perspex sits inside a lip made by 2 layers of the hood
There's "lift a dot" poppers around the screen and presstuds to the body
There is a removable hood "bow" that slots into holes in the bodywork, you can see it's outline through the hood

I've knocked up this dodgy sketch to show how the door meets the hood, the black is the fabric/leather, the blue is the perspex. Once the door is shut, you have to lift the outer section of the hood over to the outer side of the perspex, easy when you are standing outside of the car, not so easy when seal in!



quote:
Originally posted by ian locostzx9rc2
If it’s a classic striker you can buy doors from Raw as for hood I made a half hood clipped on the front windscreen surround with poppers then poppers on the rollbar did this with both my strikers worked really well


Out of interest, whats the benefit of half vs a full hood?

I've only used the weather gear twice on my Striker and found it really difficult to get in out of, It get in head first, sit on the tunnel, feet down into the footwell and slide my bum into the seat, now it's almost impossible since I've fitted fibre glass bucket seats, with large "wings" at shoulder height

I guess it may be much easier to get in with a half hood as the opening in to the car is much bigger


[Edited on 10/12/17 by Toys2]

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martinnitram

posted on 10/12/17 at 06:33 PM Reply With Quote
Thanks.

Your doors look nice and neat, they are what I want on mine with the elbow room, are they the ones supplied by Raw ?

Your roof looks identical to what I'm fitting and has the 2 layers of material making the door seal, so had assumed you would have to poke your finger round to sit it in between, not a great idea, is there much stopping it blowing out and flapping around ?

The support bow is interesting as id not thought of slotting it into a hole, I was thinking of hinging it so it could be folded back to the roll bar when not in use.

Plan is to get everything fitted and then just keep the roof in a roll bag in case I get caught out with the rain, but keep the doors on most of the time to keep the battering from the wind down a bit.

Thanks for the pictures.

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SJ

posted on 10/12/17 at 08:12 PM Reply With Quote
quote:

Seal was probably the wrong word to describe how the doors 'meet' the roof.

Got any pictures of yours I can look at ?
Regards



Sorry, I don't have any, but it really is just a case of the doors being a bit bigger than the gap they close into so you have to tuck them in when closing. My doors are made from thin polycarbonate [1.5 or 2mm I think] with ali strip to make them a bit less floppy. They work surprisingly well though.

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Tazzzzman1

posted on 11/12/17 at 03:31 PM Reply With Quote
Quote:

"Out of interest, whats the benefit of half vs a full hood?

I've only used the weather gear twice on my Striker and found it really difficult to get in out of, It get in head first, sit on the tunnel, feet down into the footwell and slide my bum into the seat, now it's almost impossible since I've fitted fibre glass bucket seats, with large "wings" at shoulder height

I guess it may be much easier to get in with a half hood as the opening in to the car is much bigger"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I used Westfield doors and got a purpose made half roof fitted for my Sr2. You can see details on my Blog


SR2 Build

The main reasons for the half roof for me were:

1/ Much easier and quicker to fit (could fit in 20 secs)
2/ Kept me dry even in torrential rain
3/ Easy to store in car
4/ Not so claustrophobic
5/ Doesnt mist up
6/ cheap as chips if you can make your own

The biggest issue I had in really wet weather was water coming up underneath the doors leaving me with a wet arm. This I resolved with a crush tube seal between bottom of door and body.

[Edited on 12/12/17 by Tazzzzman1]Text

[Edited on 12/12/17 by Tazzzzman1]

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petroldiaries

posted on 21/1/18 at 02:09 PM Reply With Quote
I can take more pics of specific bits if you need them.

quote:
Originally posted by martinnitram
While weather has turned to 54hite ive started to fit the soft top to my striker.

Fitted the lift-the-dot's to the screen and rear end and clipped the top on to give it a stretch, next step is to make a fold up centre support for the roof and thinking of knocking up some doors.

Considering making a light metal frame with elbow room bent in, with polycarb skin which will bend to the shape of the frame, which should be fairly easy, but getting a decent seal to the roof I'm not sure of, don't want to end up with a pair of flapping wings hanging off the sides.

The Caterham doors look like they have a U shapes rubber channel over the top but cant find any decent close up pictures of how they fit into the roof seal, have googled without luck a few times.

Has anyone got some decent pictures of how the doors and roof all fit together, and some of the support frame would be a great help, plus open to suggestions by anyone that has already done this job.

Many thanks


My vid (below) gives quite a few close ups on where I renovated the hood and side doors, I can take more pics of specific bits if you need them.

https://youtu.be/8HvTOtGfuw4

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