Hood soft top

[John R Lakey]

A while back I ended up using my roadster over the summer with a torn hood on both sides just behind the side window.
It lives in a garage so getting it damp wasn't a massive issue in the short term. I have a BGT I use over the winter.

It was brilliant on one level, it was just like having a modern MX5 or whatever, you got in, unlatched and threw back. If you want to pop into a shop on way home you clip up then unclip again just like a modern roadster. I'd given up on saving both roof and plastic rear windows.

It made me look at the hood mechanism.
With a glass window (which many hood makers offer on a more RV8 style roof) the thing which stops the MGB roof from folding in one movement is the fact it would stretch and tear the fabric at the point where the rear of the side window goes from vertical to horizontal. Its an over-centre moment in the timeline of folding the roof down. You can see on the pic where the tear was low down that allowed the hood to go up and down fine .
If that were made of a stretch fabric at that area behind the window it would flick up and down like a modern roadster...

I've been playing around with design solutions to this and even had a vague look at the idea of grafting an Alfa Spider, MX5 or MGF hood frame into an MGB.
My car is heavily modified anyway so originality is not an issue although I get that for some it will be and that is fine if the car is an original spec car it's a shame to modify it in some ways.
But my roadster is many miles away from being standard already so having a better restomod roadster roof would be fabulous.

If you use an MGB as transport in the UK for more than 4 days a year you will need to get the roof up or down quickly so I've always thought it was a real shame it wasn't possible. The Alfa Spider was much better in that regard, and was an MGB contemporary.

Before I start putting real effort into this I just wondered if anyone had done it already?

I would have thought a company, marketing a 'throw back' roof that can go up and down from the cockpit would sell shed loads. I would have guessed that Frontline would have had go so their 150k masterpiece can compete with a modern roadster on that level. but they have not done so apparently.

I'd love to improve my car in this way so any ideas are appreciated!

Cheers

John

[Bumpa]

I couldn't agree more. I don't have a roadster any more, but when I used one as my daily transport for a period of 12 years, the hood used to frustrate me enormously. As you say the Alfa Spider had a throw-back hood in the 1960s. The MGB's top just doesn't compare. I wonder if one of the problems is that the B's hood is outside the bodywork. More modern roadsters like the MX5 and the BMW Z3 have it inboard with special drain channels to take the water away. I imagine it would be pretty difficult to emulate that arrangement on an MGB and maybe that's why no-one seems to have done it. But don't let these negative thoughts deter you! Let's hear how you get on.

[John R Lakey]

The external point is a good shout Mike. Making drain channels would be a massive issue I think. Does anyone know if RV8s had internal drain channels?

[Bumpa]

The RV8 hood is external to the body, same as the MGB. In fact you can fit an RV8 hood on an old MGB. The difference seems to be that there are no quarter windows on the RV8 top and maybe that makes it just possible to push the top down without lots of unclipping. If you see one with the top down the area at the rear of the doors looks awfully strained.

[Not_Anumber]

John, if you would like to experiment with an MGF / TF hood frame then I have one that you would be welcome to for free.

The frame itslef is perfect.
The hood has some wear (tiny holes that could be patched)
There is no zip out rear window present (it was zipped out and donated to someone who needed it.)

This was on my 2003 MG TF but I then upgraded to a good 2nd hand hood with a glass rear window. As this arrived on it's own frame I swapped the whole assembly (only 4 bolts) and the old one went into a corner of the garage and I later donated the zip out rear screen to a forum member.

There are still so many 2nd hand F / TF hoods knocking around on frames that a hood frame with a tired hood and absent rear window is not something for which there is much demand so I have only kept it in the hope it may be of use to someone. I could do with the space back though now.

The price is right, as they say, so go on please rescue it from being repurposed as a barbecue cover.