So I needed a hood...

[Kingster]

Planning a weekend away with changeable weather has focussed my desire for a hood to go over my cage. 
 

For our last road trip one of our lads, Graeme, kindly let me make use of his own home made hood - and this got me thinking of making one for myself. 
 

I managed to get some waterproof fabric from eBay for under £14 and also bought a couple of mountain bike clamps to fit at the back of the cage. Any other bits and bobs I needed were in my Aladdin’s cave of a garage, so the total outlay was less than £20.

 

 First job was to make a template from an old bit of fabric

 

 

 

once I was happy with this design that I shamelessly ripped from Graeme’s “Mark II” version I transferred the pattern onto the new material. 
 

the bits at the top of the photo happened to be hoops used for hanging these old curtains - turned out to be in almost the right location for my Velcro straps that are used to hold it at the front of the cage. 
 

next up, a few hours messing about with the wife’s sewing machine and making use of some straps I cut off an old boot protector we have a functional (if not very pretty) hood

 

 

 

 

I plan to 3D print some fasteners for the bottom of the straps as I’m not convinced about the bolt idea - or I’ll once again blag one of Graeme’s ideas and use a piece of carbon sheet with slots cut out. But for now it might just do the job. 
 

Now the obvious question is “but won’t you just get wet without a windscreen?” - and yes, of course I will.
 

But when you are moving, the aeroscreen tends to send rain over your head and the half doors keep a lot of the tyre induced deluge out - It’s when you get caught in slow moving traffic or get stuck at lights/incidents that you get soaked as the rain fills the car from above - and the hood really helps with this 👍

[SootySport]

Don't get too good with the sewing machine or the Mrs will have you making her dresses,. Been there and got the tee shirt.

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

Neat idea, might want to consider a coat of tent waterproofer, despite it being "waterproof" material!

[CarbonWest - Chris Broster - Bristol & Bath AO]

A final safety note might be to ensure that at least one point is attached/wrapped/secured around a bar to ensure that should you reach terminal velocity - and the hood detaches - it remains attached to the car until you can stop and stash it?

[Kingster]

3 minutes ago, Chris Broster - Bristol & Bath AO said:

A final safety note might be to ensure that at least one point is attached/wrapped/secured around a bar to ensure that should you reach terminal velocity - and the hood detaches - it remains attached to the car until you can stop and stash it?

 

it Is wrapped and secured around the entire front of the cage. 👍
 

design it’s based on using same fixing method tested to 120 on track

[CarbonWest - Chris Broster - Bristol & Bath AO]

@Chris King - Webmaster and Joint North East AO That should do it!

[Andrew]

2 hours ago, Chris King - Webmaster and Joint North East AO said:

 

it Is wrapped and secured around the entire front of the cage. 👍
 

design it’s based on using same fixing method tested to 120 on track

 

Will it fly though? 

 

[Kingster]

12 minutes ago, Andrew said:

 

Will it fly though? 

 

 

Haha - let‘s not go there!

[RICHARD+PHILIP]

is there a risk the rain will go over your head but under the roof?

[Kingster]

1 hour ago, RICHARD+PHILIP said:

is there a risk the rain will go over your head but under the roof?

 Yup. But it then tends to continue on its journey out the back 😁

 

edit: it is by no means a perfect solution, but it’s definitely better than not having anything over your head in traffic jams! 

[Kingster]

Printed a better way to attach the straps