Alternative softtop

[Sparticle]

While it's quiet on here, anyone ever come across, or tried themselves, to fit a ready made off the shelf hood, say MG or MX5 or something like that? Still can't decide if I'm getting one, making a skinny one, attempting a hardtop, or just staying topless. Wouldn't mind having a play with a cheap ragtop that could be made to fit, then fabricate me own frame and side screens.

[aaronjb]

I think the trouble with most of those is that they are designed to fold down into a recess, although some do fold down fairly compactly.. the MGF/TF is a "pram hood" so quite simple, too.

GD make their own fold-down soft top, which might be another option?

Either way you have to make sure you avoid it sticking up too far when folded, lest it look like this:

[Bigblock]

Look at very early MGB roadsters, they had a frame that came out and packed away, however they all relied on being fastened to the screen top to tension the material

[KevinW]

Have often thought about this myself. If it can be made to dit round the back of the cockpit, then getting it trimmed shorter and having the usual screen fixings added would not be difficult.

[Bigblock]

Have often thought about this myself. If it can be made to dit round the back of the cockpit, then getting it trimmed shorter and having the usual screen fixings added would not be difficult.

The MGB header rail is quite a substantial piece of steel, it would have to be radically modified, but possible

[AlexB74]

Just had a google and the mx5 NA hardtop (which probably shares some of the soft top dimensions too) is 56" wide (across the widest point), 16 1/4" high (from the lowest to the highest point), and 49 1/2" long (at the centre)

My guess is the hard bit would be fitting it to the screen top...

Would be much easier to hinge (maybe double hinge, so the supports collapse like a zig zag) the supports for an existing europa type hood?

Alex.