OK, so its been a year now since I got my new hardtop from Honeybourne Mouldings in England.
I spent a lot of time fitting it to my car OTS 1961-71 I wanted to use Over-Center-Latches at the sides (by the door jamb), instead of the “J hooks” that Honeybourne supplied. This required that I cut off a couple inches of the top bracket and drill a new 1/4" hole, one inch in from the side.
I purchased a couple of overcenter stainless latches from Shouthco Mfg (US) and fastened them
to the Tonneau stud that is in the Jag factory top bracket, this works and looks fine and doesn’t change the originality of the car.
The front top of the windscreen I drilled and tapped 1/4"20 the existing soft top pockets in the existing 3 sockets and used stainless Acorn nuts at these points, again no changes to originality.
The rear of the top didn’t fit tite down into the area between the boot-lid and the cockpit, but I noted that the original Jag Hardtop doesn’t fit to well here either! The side two brackets or latches
just don’t pull down the top here. So I searched for a shallow, nice-looking latch that I could install in these spots without drilling holes in the car. I found a “Rotary Action Latch” that would pull down the top perfectly! Spaenaur #097-092…Job done.
Can you provide pictures by chance Derek
Cheers
Danny
Looking good, Derek! You’ve come a long way. You’re going to like having a hardtop early spring / late fall. Quieter and better diver visibility than the soft top. The rear window of my soft top presents a rectangular 9”x35” field of view while the hardtop rear window’s roughly 12”x50”, so nearly twice as large. The hardtop side pillar between the door window and rear window is 8” while the same blind spot in the soft top is 18” wide. Big difference.
I’m restoring mine, awaiting delivery of rechromed bits and new headliner material. So it’s out of commission at a time I usually have it mounted. In the interim I have the soft top up for the first time in many years and beginning to appreciate the hardtop more and more.
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Wow Nick: Good information, glad to here from you, I did not know
about site differences.
It seems a lot of E guys love the looks of the roadster with the hard
top on it! and keep them on
year round… What kind of shape is your soft top in ?
stay safe…Derek
I’m definitely one of them…
I definitely would not keep the hardtop on full time, Derek - there’s nothing like the top-down driving experience, including practically 360 degree field of view. Someday just for giggles I’ll figure out the different fields of view with either hardtop mounted or soft top erected. I replaced my original vinyl soft top with a mohair top from the UK back in the mid 80s but have very seldomly used it since so it’s in really good shape. I just don’t care much for cranking my old neck around the blind spots it presents while driving in traffic.
Nick,
Looks like a real good fit.
Would it be fair to say that one should not be concerned with a mohair top shrinking when left down versus a vinyl one ?
I found out that when I keep my vinyl one down for even a month I have good luck closing it after it sits in the sun for an hour on hot day.
Marco
No shrinkage issues, Marco. The only thing that happens after being left down and tucked into the cockpit - which happens with the vinyl tops as well - is the rear window gets distorted. It smooths out when the top is left up in the hot sun, but who leaves the top up when the sun’s shining? That’s yet another plus in the hardtop column - no distortion in the much superior field of view.
You can mitigate the distortion somewhat by laying in a folded towel against the window before stowing the top.
Yes, I do the same with hopes to reduce scratching as well…