Looking for advice,
2004 MX5 Mk2.5 with a Mohair roof, Glass rear window.
When folding the hood away, it gets almost down and stops, needs to be “helped” the last foot or so, So I usually push down fairly gently, on the rear glass to get it to go that last bit, however, it has now started to come away from the glass in the upper corners.
Why is it so “tight” at that point, have i been doing something wrong?, and more importantly, can it be repaired.
thanks
Keep pushing it down and you will need a new hood!
What is wrong is the rear hoop is not coming forward as you lower the hood. Lubricate the joints, and as you lower the hood pull the rear hoop forward, eventually it will "relearn and do it itself if the joint is free and the springs are ok
Thanks Richard, That makes a lot of sense, I didn’t even think of lubrication, as I do all the maintenance on the car, I can confirm that at no time in the last 7 years has any oil or grease been applied anywhere near the roof.
I have looked closer at the window and found that the actual glass is coming out of the bottom of the “capsule”, where the seal has failed, while at the top, the capsule is coming away from the hood at the corners, where it its stitched in, some of the stitching has failed, so i will reseal the glass with some windscreen sealer, and see if I can get the stitching repaired, or maybe just use some bond there too.
OK, so I know it’s been a while, but I had a look at all the moving parts, and all seem to be moving freely enough, but I lubricated all the moving parts just as Richard suggested.
Moved on to looking at repairing the rear window, Apparently you can no longer buy windscreen bond, although any window repair guy would probably sell you a tube, so I bought a can of Tiger Seal, the closest alternative, “seals and bonds permanently”.
I could have just sealed up the lower edge where it’s come away, but I thought, as the stitching is loose at the top and the glass at the bottom, the best option would be to remove the glass completely and repair the stitching first, then bond in the glass.
Glass pretty much fell out at the bottom right up to almost the top corners, then it was a pig, had to use a blade to remove what appeared to be bonding sealer, as I worked, more stitching came away, til eventually it was clear that the stitching on the entire surround was just failing, so I popped the whole thing out, removed the glass from the capsule and cleaned up the capusle and glass.
I ordered up a sewing awl and a spool of waxed thread and will attempt to sew in the surround, I say attempt, as I have never sewen anything in my life, but the You Tube videos make it look a breeze…
Once that’s done I can bond in the glass. It’s worth a try, the thread and bond cost around £40 in total.
Started today, spent absolutely ages, setting the capsule in place to make sure It was straight and square before beginnig to stitch it in, used some spring clamps t loosly hold it in place and started stitching from the centre bottom, after about 10 minutes, I had to put a glove on my right hand, which was the hand used to pull the thread tight, as it was digging in, after several breaks of the thread and restarts from where it broke, I am now just at the bottom right corner, it’s only taken me about 2 hours, I “hope” I will get quicker as I go, because at this rate, I’m looking at about 12 hours. Although there is no rush, car is in the garage so no weather worries, other than it being about 100 degrees in there today.