First off I would like to thank the following for information and help:
Chris Taylor
Ree Gurley
Nick Moseley
Cliff Pike
The hard top is now on my '74 Spit. For others who have a HT to install
here is the pain I went through and maybe this will help someone else.
Materials:
I had made some alignment tools out of 4" bolts. The heads were taken off
and rounded. I also used a couple 1"x1"x12" blocks of wood wrapped in
toweling.
I used 2 1/2" x 5/16 fine thread bolts with 1" flat washers for the
headliner ( just fit ) and 2 chrome dome bolts with flat washers to hold
down the rear of the HT.
Directions:
Install the 4"bolts into the HT first while it is off the car.
Place the toweled blocks on the edge where the rear rail of the HT will make
contact with the body.
Lift the HT into place and very gently align the two front bolts with the
holes in the headliner. At this point the HT is resting on the car ( via
the towel and the headliner ).
Carefully, remove one of the alignment bolts and insert the final bolt.
Then remove the other and do the same. DO NOT tighten down.
Remove the wood/towel block & adjust the HT into final position. Insert the
rear deck bolts. ( some adjustment of the position of the top was required
here )
Tighten down the headliner bolts making sure the seal looks good and the HT
is lining up correctly. Then tighten down then deck bolts.
Last but not least, enjoy, this ended up taking me 20 minutes the first
time. I think that time will be shorter in the future.
David A. Templeton
mailto:davidt@opentext.com
74 Spitfire "Spit-Six"
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