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Soft Bits for Sevens - Good Effort!


Sand Dancer

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Credit where credit is due - on 3 October 2106, I rang Soft Bits for Sevens and the phone was picked up immediately by Tristan.

I ordered a set of half doors, the material type, together with a hood bag for my Westfield supplied half hood.

Tristan said they were busy but he would try to send the items out in a couple of weeks.

I subsequently received several email updates to let me know the progress and today - 18 October, I received both the doors and the hood bag by courier.

Excellent service - and excellent quality doors and hood

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All i have to do now is drill some more holes in the body work and fit them!!

What rivets are the best to use to mount the poppers onto the GRP bodywork??

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I have the same doors , I used small nuts and bolts to secure poppers to the body instead of rivets, use chalk to get an accurate position.  I secured the very rear of the door to the body with velcro, to get in or out you release the velcro and the next popper, the door then hangs down to enable easy entry/exit.. You have remember to fasten then again after getting in the car doing up the seat belts etc. I have driven away from a forecourt with the door hanging down on more than one occasion.  Doors work well with wind deflectors.

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Thanks - good idea with the Velcro I will give that a try.

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For riveting press stud bases and other fastenings on to bodywork, you really should use peel rivets. Unlike normal pop rivets, they have pre weakened sections, so that when you pull them, they sold out behind the panel to spread the load over a wider area.

Just be aware that they're not water tight! Not normally a problem in most places we'd use them on Westfield's. but if you do have a rivet location where you're worried moisture could get through, just seal the opening in the rivet with a small dab of silicon.

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Two months ago I emailed and had no response so I phoned them up a few weeks ago. Got told the 'boss' was out and they would call me back the next week. Got that call to be told the 'boss' was still away and they would contact me the week after.

 

Over two weeks have past since and no call or email.

 

Very disappointed at the level of service especially when other companies are much more responsive.

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  • 2 weeks later...

On advice I ordered some peel rivets off eBay, I decided to get some 3.2mm x 18mm and some 4.0mm x 20mm to see which was the best fit. Unfortunately I could only buy them in bulk so the postman delivered 150 of each – I only needed 8!!

The postman delivered them in 3 days, but the dogs beat me to the package and I found 300 rivets scattered all over the floor – at least I hope there were 300 and they didn’t eat too many!

I also ordered some mud flap material from JJC Race and Rally.

It was fairly straightforward fitting the mud flaps

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I cut the sheet of rubber mud flap material to length and left a 3cm overlap for the attachment to the existing cycle wing. I then used three bolts and countersunk washers to secure them and they seem fairly secure.

Fitting the half doors was also straightforward. Although working around the padded dashboard meant that the forward part of the half door was located further forward than the pictures on the Soft Bots for Sevens web page.

I tested the peel rivets on a piece of scrap GRP that I had cut from the bodywork during the build

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The bottom rivet is an ordinary pop rivet the middle is a 3.2mm peel rivet and the top is the 4.00mm peel rivet, but this has a pop fastener on the other side

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The 4.00mm rivet gave a good grip – but the top of it stood proud of the pop fastener and would impede the closing of the popper. So I went for the 3.2mm option.

I used the two supplied ‘pull the dot’ fasteners for the top front location and ordinary press studs for the remaining locations. On the drivers side I left off the rear top press stud and fitted Velcro (as per ‘Olliebeak’s’ suggestion )– to enable easier access. I will see if the Velcro stands up to use.

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End result

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There appears to be plenty of hand room around the steering wheel

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Just need Chris ‘Kingster’ to organise another trip to St Mary’s Loch to see if this proofs the car against cow and sheep sh!t!!!

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I had a quick ride out to see if they worked, first imprsssions - they work well and take a lot of turbulence away. £65 well spent!

The Velcro works well as it is a bit of a contortionist trick to reach the rear of the half door when sitting in the drivers seat and next to impossible with the seat belts fastened.

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I had a quick ride out to see if they worked, first imprsssions - they work well and take a lot of turbulence away. £65 well spent!

The Velcro works well as it is a bit of a contortionist trick to reach the rear of the half door when sitting in the drivers seat and next to impossible with the seat belts fastened.

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Two months ago I emailed and had no response so I phoned them up a few weeks ago. Got told the 'boss' was out and they would call me back the next week. Got that call to be told the 'boss' was still away and they would contact me the week after.

 

Over two weeks have past since and no call or email.

 

Very disappointed at the level of service especially when other companies are much more responsive.

 

I emailed them yesterday about a half hood with "easy in" options as I'd like to order one ready for next season - I'll give them a week to reply then give them a call.

 

I know small companies have to balance making things with answering the phone / emails but I agree it can be extremely frustrating (sometimes annoying) when people don't get back to you.

 

My local plumber did exactly the same thing - so would I recommend him to anyone - no chance !! :angry: :angry: :angry:

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Still nothing from them (albeit without me chasing) ... obviously forgotten about me. However I won't forget them!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Had a response from Tristan a week or so ago and today everything now ordered and paid on their system and hopefully ready before Xmas (prezzy time although not really required until the weather warms up !). I went for 2 x Easy Outs (as well as a storage bag) - with my solid half doors and ageing occupants I don't think I could have limboed through the gap but I'm really looking forward to trying this new hood setup.

 

Tristan has been very helpful even advising I bought the screen channel myself from Westfields as the last one he tried to order took over 3 months (mine took 1 day from WF so a lesson there in vendor "co-operation" I think !!) - I forwarded the screen channel onto Soft Bits which was a bit of a pita but better than them waiting 3 months or more :down:  :)

 

I need to improvise something to raise the height of the roll bar when the hood is fitted as the standard (though safety modified) square hoop I have is a close shave head wise - I've seen some nice looking plastic pipe / corners that I think I can adapt that I can clip on when the hood needs to go on that will raise it just the right amount - so that's another job on my "to do" list for winter :d

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My narrow body SE has a full tonneau secured with press studs. I'd like to use these if I were to get some fabric doors Do the fabric doors come with pre-fitted press studs or did you have to fit them to suit?

Thanks

Allan

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