Turbocharger Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 This is surely an issue that others have dealt with before... I have a hardtop Ninety with a Tornado Motorsport cage; the rear hoop joins to the front via sandwich plates on the side of the hardtop, above and behind the corners of the doors. Bad photo: I'd like to convert the car to soft-top, but I want to retain the cage. I could just bolt through the canvas via eyelets in the same way as with the hardtop at present, but I'd like to be able to remove the canvas without unbolting the front hoop etc. Since Google is my friend, I have turned up the following links, in ascending order of wackiness: All Wheel Trim's page shows a very neat conversion of a Ninety with poppers around the cage (and a weird sleeve arrangement that I don't like): Frog's Island have a range of tiny photos showing that such an idea is possible, but no real illustration of how they do it. Rover World cover the installation of a cage into a soft-top in great detail, bolt by bolt, but completely skip the bit that I'm interested in. Nene Overland have a big selection of soft-top options, including this foldable fastback version, but I don't see how it'd fold without 1) looking like a pram and 2) unbolting the front cage. If I was starting with a completely new design I'd make shape it so it curved down and inwards at the rear (like the Brahma tops for Mitsu L200s or the BMW X6) for better aerodynamics(!) but I'm steering towards commercial products on the grounds of cost. This must have been done before - any ideas or should I just put wingnuts on the sandwich plates that currently go through the roof? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brookers Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 I'm wondering about doing this myself, have you had a look at the NAS cages from P&P? http://www.ppcages.com/displayimg.php?url=pages/gallery/landrover/main/005.jpg They use a All Wheel Trim hood, Exmore Trim also do a NAS style hood. The problem is none of them have a internall cross brace in the roll cage. It might be worth your while asking TJ101 how the hood is done on the hybred? Will watch this with interest. Brookers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest noggy Posted October 18, 2009 Share Posted October 18, 2009 have you looked at the 60th SVX rag tops? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremlin Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I went with the bolts trough the canvas top. Ask yourself how many times will you remove the canvas?? daily, monthly?? It might not be worth the hassle of buying an expensive top, only to find out the cage connection leaks water. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishbosh Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 only to find out the cage connection leaks water. So no different to a hard top Landy, with or without a cage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRecklessEngineer Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 Man up! No-top is definately the way forwards. ....It does get some interesting looks when you are parked at lights with a brolly up though.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbocharger Posted October 20, 2009 Author Share Posted October 20, 2009 Hmm. Food for thought here. I had discounted the idea of bolting through the canvas but it might not be that much of a nightmare to mess about with - and it keeps the cost nearer to £sensible. Just need a set of hood sticks really... I'll try the idea out by taking the roof off (after the forum laning trip - I'm not that stupid!) and see how I get on. I've not had the roof off in nearly ten years - since the cage was fitted, in fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbocharger Posted October 3, 2010 Author Share Posted October 3, 2010 This thread's a few days short of a year old but (with some external inspiration) I solved it today. We masked the hood into squares around the bolt holes, and applied a veneer of superglue to the canvas in four squares on each side, so any fraying around the bolts wouldn't propagate and rip across the whole roof: Then just drilled a small hole from the inside, enlarged them from the outside, and bolted the cage up. It'll probably leak in, but there's plenty of holes for it to leak out again... Very pleased to have the full protection of the cage back, those hood sticks are mighty spindly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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