Hello all
i have on issue on the hood , Please look link above , from á French mx5 passion forum
i am sorry , didn’ t success in posting photo here
the first picture show you my hood, i just want to know if there is a way to stop this small tear on the hood
to stop or to fix it
thank you
sorry
The link on my first post works , but you have to copy to see picture of my hood
cant put á direct link
Here is the picture.
I do not think you can repair that, or stop it, when it gets worse the hood will need replacing.
I think maybe you can only slow it down.
I’d be tempted to glue a small piece of vinyl on the underside with a really strong glue like ‘Gorilla’
Clamp it and leave it for 3 hours to fully cure, then from the top try and put some stitches in by hand following the original stitching line.
This will be hard work to stitch, but better than letting it get worse.
I have to agree with the comments above.
I guess the hood is fairly old. This tends to happen with vinyl hoods as they age.The cracks nearly always appear where the folds are in the roof.
You could try a repair if you can find any where near to you in France that does vinyl repairs. But, you are likely to see other cracks appear as it ages.
I had 2 hoods (in vinyl) on my old Mk2.5 and then I spent a bit more and had a Mohair hood fitted. Best thing I ever did, lasted ages and still looked excellent after 6 years when I sold the car.
If you can afford it get a Mohair hood…false economy not to in my opinion.
The hood has shrunken, there is not really that much you can do, except buy a new hood.
ahhhh!
Always wondered why vinyls do this. It’s not as if you can prevent it either I guess.
Mine has a number of those little edge-tears, if it wasn’t for the hard top, this winter would probably be the end of it.
You can kind of waterproof it by sticking some vinyl on the underside; use a contact adhesive, seal the edges with gaffer tape while it sets, then use black silicone to “fill in” the tear. It will serve two purposes; provide some weatherproofing, and act as a constant reminder to buy a new hood. A perfectly decent vinyl hood is about £150, lasts as long as any of the more expensive brands (though BAS hoods do very closely resemble OE).
Your picture shows the classic small splits that occur in the seams above the doors. This is the first stage of vinyl roof degeneration meaning that the material is tired and has become inflexible. Your split is the second stage where one of the seam splits extends to the main panel.
If you repair this and I would say that small split has been caught early enough to effect a good repair as described above, the roof could last another year or two. I would repair it and aim to replace next summer when the weather is warmer - easier to work in and vinyl more workable.
Thx to you for all these answers
Very helpfull, i think i am gonna give á try to slow it down
I understand i Will have to change the hood at one point
For now , i drove 700 miles from England and had 3 Hours of hard rain, and havent seen any leak
So the car is waterproof
Its only a car for sunny days, so it should be ok for a year or two, unless i décidé to change for a blue mohair hood sooner
Merci à tous
