NEW HOOD for S4

[trw99]

Some Elans had a sticker in the hood tray (bit of a hint in the name) with hood folding instructions.

It was a reproduction of page 49 of Section B of the Workshop Manual, reduced to half A4.

Mark

Why did you hang your cat?

Tim

[Mazzini]

Mark had to set an example after the cat let the mice eat the hood of his white Elan.

[nebogipfel]

Good to know. Thanks John and Eric. My current hood's backlites do NOT follow the curvature and yes, it looks odd. John, is the front lip that engages the top of the windscreen design an improvement over oem? Or simply oem, which is a good design in itself.

Greg Z

If I'm honest Greg I can't remember what the factory hood front lip looked like it's all too long ago but I'm pretty sure the Sue Miller hoods have been improved to make the fixing very secure.

The hood Susan supplied to me has a flexible black plastic? flange stitched to the front of the hood and as I said earlier makes a very neat and secure fixing.

One Elan I had used to have a tendency to pull out at speed and actually ripped the corner popper out of the hood at one point

I know if you contacted Susan she would be able to give you the full story.

My totally original Sprint back in the 70's had the hood fixed at the rear of the deck as Mark has said and it also had the stowage instruction sticker on the hood tray and I have always assumed the hood was non-removable on all Type 45's ex factory

[alexblack13]

The sticker is a copy of the item in the owners manual. I copied and plasticated it and stuck it where the original was before I restored the hood tray. Comes in handy! I recon' I have folded the hood differently every time I have put it away!

Happy days....

Alex Black.

[skelteanema]

After much deliberation, I decided to remove my hood completely. I replaced it with a full tonneau (Paul matty's) which I installed permanently in the fashion of the hood (seven permanent fasteners). This way, I could stow it away under the half tonneau when not in use, and quickly erect it when required. I have kept the old hood, which is in good condition just in case I want to go back to this, but i never used it much. With the tonneau, fitting wasn't too much of an issue, but I did find water would not run to the edges so I use a block of wood to raise the centre near the gear shift to help water run off. I may try and make a more friendly solution from PVC pipe (when I have the time).

[Elanman99]

As an owner of an S4 DHC from a new kit I'd like to add a little to this topic.

The original Lotus hood was very easy and quick to stow as long as the instructions the instruction were followed (the diagram came as a stuck label on the hood tray).

I bought my first replacement hood in about 1972 (I cannot remember the makers name but it was a very well known and popular manufacturer, (something like the 'Car Hood Company') and I am pretty sure it did not come with any instructions although fitting is was very easy and I dont remember punching any holes for the fasteners.

The hood I have now was from Mick Miller in about 2004, again it came without any documentation and I spent some time trying to decide the best procedure to ensure a good fit, that though was after I had punched some fixing holes in the wrong place! I wrongly assumed that the hood was symetrical about the centreline so I folded it to find the point to make the middle rear hole, punched that one, and then a few others either side of it. I then did a trial fit and found that the hood material near the door handle was very unequal. When I did eventually complete the fitting I was left with several spare holes in the material.

The overall quality of my MM hood is good but is let down by two things. firstly not being given any fitting advice and secondly and more importantly by not having the correct window shape to ensure that it folds where Lotus intended it to be folded. To be more specific, the 2" wide strips of material that form the divisions between the windows have to be in the correct place as they on the actual fold lines needed for the hood to stow properly.

I can understand why people now make the hood detachable, its a cop-out though, especially for any originality freaks, but it also means that it take just that little bit longer to erect the hood and that matters when the heavens open suddenly!

Ian Phillips

[jimj]

As you may have read in a more current thread, I`m wanting a new hood for our otherwise immaculate Sprint. The most convenient option is to buy one from, say, Sue, and spend a bit more having a local trimmer fit it. I wouldn`t want one like on the yellow car above but like this one on our S3 with the rear window vertically central and the curved bottom edge. Which are Sue`s like?
Jim

[jimj]

Oops, when I said the yellow car above I didn`t realise it`s the previous page and not so easy to compare, but you`ll get the idea.
Incidentally the hood that came with the Sprint, which is a little tired, has a rectangular back window, which looks wrong, and the flaps that the door window frame closes against are too mean. You can even see daylight between the window frame and the hood.
Amazingly I tried the S3 hood on the Sprint and it fits virtually perfectly. If the tenax males were accurately placed at the factory, why don`t hoods come with them fitted? Or what it just coincidence?
Jim

[ericbushby]

I bought my hood from Sue. It has a curved bottom edge to the window as you want. The tenax studs are bought seperately.
I fitted it in cool weather which is not a good idea as the fabric is easier to handle when warm. But with lots of heat in the garage and another heater inside the car we managed. I do not recommend it.
I punched a 3mm hole where the stud looked like it should be, so that it would fit over the centre, small part of the fixed stud for trial fitting. When it all looked right I could then adjust the final position of the 9mm hole for the tenax fastener.
I made a 9mm punch specially for the job.
The rectangular window method is a lazy, cheap way of doing it, as it saves on tooling for the Radio Frequency welding machines used for this process. I know a bit about that!.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

PS. I have just looked back through this thread to find I gave a very similar answer two years ago. Oh well, I will leave it now.