DIY Hood and Sidescreen Fitting

by Bob Green

Bob has recently fitted the DJ Sportscars sidescreens and hood to his V8 Rush. Here is his account of how he did this, in his own words:

We've had one or two questions about the fitting of the hood recently and, having just fitted one this weekend, here are my thougts on the subject (please bear in mind there is always more than one way to skin the old cat though - what works for me may not for you!!)

The new Dax instructions are pretty good. Terrific drawings and generally good instructions. The only one I'd argue about though was the instruction to fit the sidescreens first before the hood. I figured the position of the top of the hood is pretty well fixed by the windscreen, whilst the sidescreens could easily be moved up or down or, worse, fitted first and then found to be too low or too high. I couldn't see anywhere in the instructions that gave the sidscreen vertical position So, I fitted the hood before the sidescreens. In fact below is the order that I fitted the various components. I did this single-handedly and the end result looks quite nice apart from a slight sag on the right hand side (the same is apparent on a friend's Rush also and that hood was fitted by Dax).

Anyway, they fit:

  1. Rear brackets and hood support bars first.
  2. Windscreen support hardware, i.e. sidescreen hinges & hood hooks (I took the supports off the car to do this.)
  3. Next, the hood channel catches. Remember to put some foam strip under the channel or the fit will be too tight later. Also, the foam will have to come off to glue on the front folded excess of the hood, so don't use too much.
  4. Now for the hood. I fixed the back of the hood with the studs first. If you use some masking tape on the rear tub to aid marking out and draw lots of horizontal lines and then tape the hood up first to get an idea of fit, it helps. Make sure the stud in the middle of the back of the hood is central (fold it to make sure) and start from this out to each side checking the position of each stud fixing as you go. My studs are fitted around 20mm down from the top of the tub, and only just had enough material at the front. There was no excess to trim off at all!!!
  5. Fitting the front of the hood to the channel: Fit the rear hood to the car using the newly installed studs, then use lots of strong duct tape to hold the front of the hood in position and make sure of the fit. I used about 7 strips holding the hood to the windscreen. When I was satisfied with the tautness and fit, I removed one half of the tape strips on one side of the car, and folded the top front of the hood backward to expose the underside. Using contact adhesive on the exposed half of the channel and hood underside I glued the two together. I then repeated the process the other side.
  6. Then fold the excess material under the channel and glue it. Fit a strip of foam afterwards.
  7. Now fit the hood in position.
  8. With the hood in position its easy to see where the sidscreens fit and then it's just a matter of drilling holes in the right places and fitting the other bits and pieces.

The car actually looks quite hot roddish with the hood up. I was concerned that the fit may have been really hard to get right, but the key as ever is take your time, ponder every decision with a cup of tea, and watch a bit of motorsport in between.

Bob