Fitting Half Hood and Half Doors

[hawksa]

My wife has been shopping at Soft Bits for Sevens and has bought me a half hood and half doors for my FW for Xmas.

Any tips for fitting especially regarding fixing press studs to the grp bodywork?

Thanks,

Simon.

 

[Olliebeak]

Dont have a half hood but do have Soft Bits half doors. I found that the plastic strip that Soft Bits fit as a stiffener along the top of the doors is not stiff enough and the doors flop in along the top. I unpicked the stitching at one end and slid wooden dowel along the top, this keeps the top of the door rigid. I fitted the body studs with small nuts and bolts which you can buy in a box from Asda for £1. The head of the bolt has to be small or the press stud will not locate properly. After I fitted the studs to the body I marked the head of each one with chalk, got the door in the correct position and pressed it against the chalk on the stud , this gave the correct position when fitting the press stud to the door , I did them one at a time to ensure the position was correct.

Hope some of this may be useful         , 

[toys4x4boys]

I punched the holes into the half doors, basically one each corner, then offered the door up to the car.

Marked the first stud location through the hole in the door into the car, fitted the stud to the car and socket to the door and offered door up.

Then repeated for the other three. Got a good tight fit.

Getting the door lined up so it looks right took the longest, I used an inside seam in the door and lined it up to the body line of the sill.

The half hood straps, fitted to the studs I already had for a standard roof, and they were pretty much from the build book for locations.

But they aren't as critical as the door ones. As you have wiggle room on the straps.

Decent pop rivet gun, where the end of the head can fit I to the sockets would be my main concern, mine was a bit big, so I do have one or 2 sockets that aren't perfectly tight.

 

[GaryH]

For fixing through GRP body work I usually apply masking tape, measure and mark up before drilling through the tape. I'm probably over cautious and drill a tiny pilot hole that I gradually open up until I get to the diameter I want. I find this reduces cracking of the gel coat. For pop riveting I use "peel rivets" these are longer than standard rivets and do what their name suggests they peel outwards to create effectively a four point star to spread the load over a decent area to give a good grip and reduce the chance of pulling back through the body work. I've got rivets from "About Town Bolts" and "Kayfast".

I hope that helps

Gary

[nick311256]

My SBFS half hood & half doors arrived last week, ordered them in early September so approx 8 weeks lead time but worth the wait, quality is is excellent just need to get it all fitted now I’ll be utilising he existing door studs for the half doors so just need to line up the sockets on the half doors to fit.

interesting tip re the door upper stiffener, will need to keep an eye on how much it flexes.

Finger crossed farther Christmas arrives on time with yours