18 NovHood Stowage Cover (for hardtop use)
One part I’ve been trying to find lately is a factory option that you could purchase for your hard top. Unlike the normal hood stowage bag, this one fits inside the hardtop and goes around the folded up hood – perfect for those like me that are too lazy or too space-constrained to take the hood assembly out when the hardtop goes on over winter.
So far my attempts at finding a black one have been unsuccessful. Reproductions are scarcely available, but I’d prefer an original really, and the only new old stock ones out there are sold by Rimmer Brothers in a Chestnut colour:
which is part 822433. The part I need is 822431!
I’d be happier making my own DIY one in black than having something the wrong colour, even if it is a genuine original.
It was quite frustrating to get a phone call from one supplier telling me they had one in stock, only for them to return my cheque weeks later claiming they’d found a mouse had eaten part of it. Not particularly impressive.
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I’ve got one of these but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to mount the hardtop and hood together and then fit this over the top! For starters, the hood seemed to want to fit through the same holes in the rear deck as the hardtop. Then there were problems at the B post – caused by the fact that the hardtop and the soft top use different mounting brackets and I only had the soft top ones. Then I found further issues with the hood cover! The poppers didn’t seem to line up and there are wierd little straps on the underside that I couldn’t figure out what to do with! It’s a strange set up for sure!
Fitting anything on these cars seems to require a bit of experimentation and ingenuity doesn’t it? Here’s what I *think* is correct:
– The hood does indeed fit through the same holes, but if the hardtop is going on, then it needs to be unbolted from them and that metal bar should be folded away accordingly
– Theres a few ways of doing the same thing at the B post. You can install the hood and attach the hardtop to the hood’s brackets, you can take the hood off leaving the hood brackets in place and still attach the hardtop to them, or you can take the hood completely out of the car and attach the hardtop to the body of the car.
– Wish I could advise better on the hood cover as I still don’t have one, I’m holding out for a reasonably priced original black one with white piping. I know what the snaps are for though, they’re to tuck the bag around the hood so that it holds it together inside the bag, and they attach around the metal bars of the hood frame. Unless you have poppers that is (which reproductions tend to), in which case there should be some snaps on the big rectangular board that separates the interior cabin from the petrol tank.