Hood Bow BJ7 and hood fit

[chicken]

Hi all, i have a quiery about the wooden bow on the hood front where it meets the windscreen (BJ7) I had to but a new wooden bow on as i didn't have the old one, the new one has a stepped in piece on the bottom, my question is, is this to butt the metal header rail retainer upto ?

Secondly the header rail retainer lip does not quite marry upto the indent on the wood bow, should it ? if so i will have to router a bit out or can the header rail overhang ? my guess is no as this would look wrong.

So i'm right, the header rail retainer sits directly on the windscreen top (with a seal under it), i take it this is wrapped in material, the wood bow must encapsulate the hood material and screw to the retainer rail and then the wood bow is screwed directly to the hood frame ?

I'm just working backwards as i havn't fixed the hood mounting brackets yet so i guessed that if i fitted up the front of the hood to the screen and got the wood round the windows to sit right this would then give me an indication where to mount the hood brackets.

I have a deadline on this to get to the trimmers so any help would be appreciated.

Rob

 

[healeydan]

Hi Rob,

I am in the final stages of fitting the hood to my BJ7 and I must say it has been quite the odyssey. Fortunately I was able to save all my wood pieces. The "step" in the bow is indeed what the rail butts up to. Small gaps along that meeting point are not critical as the 'furflex' is fitting there and would conceal incidental gapping. More critical is the relationship between the front edges of the bow and rail. Your pic 4 shows what appears to be a good fit between the two. All the wood pieces are covered in vinyl as is the rail. I took steps to minimize the build-up of layers though as the more the material the wider the gap between the hood frame and the tops of the wind wing and door window. I recommend you discuss this detail with your trimmer. Assuming your new bow is not pre-drilled for the hood frame its positioning is critical as well. Setting the bow height to match the side pieces as you show in pic 2 is the right approach. A word of caution though, deadlines are good for getting a task finished but not so good for getting it done well. Taking the time to think the fit issues all the way through can cause moments of exasperation but pays dividends in the end. dm

 

[Lutz Kramer]

Hi Rob,

I have a '67 BJ8 Phase II and as far as I know the construction of the soft top and frame shouldn't differ very much from the one of the BJ7. So I attached some Fotos from the time when I took everything apart. May be it helps a little to find out how everything in the front section fits together.



Lutz

 

[chicken]

Hi Healeydan
My trimmer has just told me he is running behind..phew.. i have a bit more play time to get things right.
Because i had new inner wings i'm having to mount everything up and align the hood mounting brackets so i can weld them on, should have measured the old ones position years ago but i was younger then and wanted to get stuck in ..
Should the wooden side rails match the hood bow at the top of the bow or the bottom (if that makes sense) i think my side rail currently sits in line with the top of the bow but if i align the bottom i can get nearer the window.
You mention furflex, does that go on the wood pieces then or just the rails ?

Thanks Rob

 

[chicken]

Thanks Lutz, yes that does help shed some light on it all, i think were getting closer ..

 

[Lutz Kramer]

Maybe these Fotos, taken by somebody else in the forum help you too. Unfortunately I do not remember the thread anymore and who took the fotos, but I hope he doesn't mind that I refer to his pictures here. As far as I remember there was a link in that thread to a lot of very helpful additional pictures. Maybe somebody else remembers and is able to provide that link.



Lutz

 

[healeydan]

Hi Healeydan
My trimmer has just told me he is running behind..phew.. i have a bit more play time to get things right.
Because i had new inner wings i'm having to mount everything up and align the hood mounting brackets so i can weld them on, should have measured the old ones position years ago but i was younger then and wanted to get stuck in ..
Should the wooden side rails match the hood bow at the top of the bow or the bottom (if that makes sense) i think my side rail currently sits in line with the top of the bow but if i align the bottom i can get nearer the window.
You mention furflex, does that go on the wood pieces then or just the rails ?

Thanks Rob

Rob,
I too agonized over whether to locate the side pieces lower but chose not to. Aligning top-to-top is best I think. Changing that relation risks imparting irregularities in the lay of the hood fabric. It is possible to add a shim to the underneath of the side piece prior to recovering. This would reduce the gap between the side piece and the top of the door glass. In the end I chose not to shim and instead concentrated on minimizing the build-up of materials between bow and windscreen. As for the furflex, it is among the very last steps of the process and comes after the recovering and refitting of all four side pieces. You will note that each side piece has its own aluminum trim support piece. The positioning of the aluminum trim on the side pieces is critical to the seal between the rubber of the furflex and the door glass. Once in place the vertical edges form a line to which the furflex is fitted. The two straight side pieces retain their position with the front bow as the hood is raised and lowered. The furflex is therefore fitted in three pieces. One each for the two "pistol" shaped side pieces and one piece that runs from the trailing end of one the straight side pieces, all the way around, including the bow, to the trailing end of the other straight side piece. Hope this helps.......................dm