Hello everyone - how difficult in reality might it be? Am I better off getting it done professionally? I have 2 Mk1s - a Merlot and a Berkeley, both in need of replacement hoods. I was wondering about buying these http://mazmania.co.uk/hoods/ and asking Mr Merlot (who has strong mechanical skills) to fit them. Any thoughts/advice gratefully received, thank you.
Easy enough if frame is still fitted to car.Follow Mazmania instructions on youtube and bar few small things it should work fine.I done 2 yesterday .
MX5 123
I did a hood change quite a few years ago and if I remember it was a Mk2 hood on a Mk2 frame and we removed the Mk1 frame and hood as one unit from the Mk1 car and put the Mk2 hood and frame on as one unit on the Mk1 car, therefore mostly a nut and bolt job. I have not changed the actual hood onto a frame.
To make the job easier it needs two people to lift on and off the frame due to it being awkward to do single handed.
If you are doing a Mk2 type hood onto a Mk2 car, therefore it has the MK2 frame and the frame is in good condition, is there any advantage at all to taking the frame off the car to do the job as opposed to the procedure Mazmania recommend.
I’ve done two, one a complete swap the other a partial removal to repair the rain rail. It’s as above really, if swapping over on the frame it’s pretty easy job, [plenty of nuts and bolts to remove and a two person job to lift off on again. As regards fitting a new hood to the frame it seems pretty straight forward more time consuming I reckon than anything else if you’ve never done one before.
I’ll just say that you will most likely find the rain rail isn’t in great condition so factor in either a repair to that or a replacement. Original RR’s can go brittle and crack as soon as you start to do work on them on the car ie remove the hood, well they did on the two I repaired/replaced.
Agreed on the rail rail but I suggest “relining” the existing rail rail with plastic , like Viscreen from builders providers, and just do neat job lining the inside of existing rain rail with it.Its 100% job if done neatly and costs very little just bit time.
Re the soft top ,unless you need to remove frame leave it on the car but having a second person to help is handy as sometimes frame needs to be held “half open” while fitting bits n pieces /screws etc
Thanks guys.
Many thanks for the tips and help guys. I’ve actually bought a hood complete with frame from ebay to fit to the Berkeley - will follow your advice (checking rain rail too) and report back on how it goes. Will then decide on how to tackle replacement on the Merlot. Cheers.