New Hood fitted !!!

ducatiross · June 22, 2014, 23:42

After waiting what seemed like ages for our booked appointment to come around, me, the mrs, and my '2 (Pearl) took a trip to Jack Smith's in Swansea on Saturday to give her a new soft top (Pearl, not the Mrs.)

This is what the old one was like - in quite a bad way.

When we arrived, Raymond, who owns Jack Smith's, got to work, cutting out the rear window, and dismantling all the rear plastics :-

Within 20 minutes, there was just a pile of plastics on the ground :-

At this point, Mrs. DucatiRoss and I went for a walk along Swansea's lovely beach front and then took lunch in a nice Italian restaurant, enjoying the gorgeous, baking sunshine.

About 4 hours later, we returned to find Pearl had been transformed !

To say I was delighted is a total understatement - I was thrilled to bits with the fantastic job Raymond had done, making the hood from scratch and doing all the fitting, for only £300 all in !

If you are thinking about getting a new hood, don't think twice, book in with Ray. He'll do a totally brilliant job and is a lovely, really funny bloke too.

I'm made up ! Hope you guys like it too.

Only trouble is, it make the seats look really bad, so I just suppose I'll have to get them recovered now too !

s:D

s:D s:D

s:D

StuC · June 22, 2014, 23:53

That looks great. :-) :-) :-)

Just checking... Is it a replacement vinyl roof?

Treboeth · June 22, 2014, 23:55

Very nice s:D

s:D
As for the seats I think you know who will do those for you too.

ducatiross · June 22, 2014, 23:58

Quote from: "StuC"That looks great. :-) :-) :-)

Just checking... Is it a replacement vinyl roof?

Roof is red mohair fabric, I think Raymond uses fabric from BAS hoods. Lovely quality.

ducatiross · June 22, 2014, 23:59

Quote from: "Treboeth"Very nice s:D s:D
As for the seats I think you know who will do those for you too.

You are not wrong !! s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Just saving up now ! But colour and fabric options are causing some difficulty. Red leather with black fabric inserts ?? What do people think ?

StuC · June 23, 2014, 00:03

Red leather bolsters and black alcantara centres. That's the way forward. s;-) ;-) s;-)

mr mr2 · June 23, 2014, 05:58

That looks fantastic

Two's Company · June 23, 2014, 07:34

Nice work. What are you going to put on it to keep it protected and clean?

Theburns1 · June 23, 2014, 08:10

It's amazing how it's mad the car look 10 times newer! Red hood on the silver looks awesome too

cptspaulding · June 23, 2014, 10:16

Looks great. I'm now very jealous.

Anonymous · June 23, 2014, 10:34

Wow what a difference. Perfect for the car. Congrats, looks brilliant (an great value)

ducatiross · June 23, 2014, 11:54

Quote from: "StuC"Red leather bolsters and black alcantara centres. That's the way forward. s;-) ;-) s;-)

That's what I was thinking StuC, but the upholstery man said "alcantara is rubbish and I won't work with it"! Back to the drawing board then ...

Thanks so much for all your positive comments. I too can't believe how it makes it look a different car altogether !

moorx · June 23, 2014, 12:04

That looks beautiful s:D

s:D

Can I ask why not just plain red leather seats?

tomaky · June 23, 2014, 12:17

More reassurance that the blue hood Ray is fitting on july 29th will be a cracking deal!

ducatiross · June 23, 2014, 12:18

Quote from: "moorx"That looks beautiful s:D s:D

Can I ask why not just plain red leather seats?

Thanks moorx !

I was thinking about :-
- full leather getting too hot when car left parked with hood down
- leather also being a bit slippery when driving 'enthusiastically'
- contrasting colours may add a little extra something

But open to suggestions !

tomaky · June 23, 2014, 12:20

I find my celica leather seats hold me very very well even when driving very enthuisastically s:)

s:)

tomaky · June 23, 2014, 12:22

guessing the fit is good? did he give any advisories of use?
ive got 305 miles to travel to get mine done hope its a good day as i might get a tan out of it hehe

ducatiross · June 23, 2014, 12:24

Quote from: "tomaky"More reassurance that the blue hood Ray is fitting on july 29th will be a cracking deal!

It certainly will - he was finishing off a Honda S2000 with a blue hood when I arrived and it looked lovely !
It'll be worth every one of those 305 miles, tomaky !

Mind you, he doesn't rate MR2 hood mechanisms ! Doesn't like how they operate and finds them quite tricky to make and fit a hood on.

How different are celica seats to MR2 ones ? Do they fit in MR2's ? s:idea: :idea: s:idea:

The fit is really good - very tight at the moment and much harder to get the catches done up. Just needs a little stretching !

Be careful on the tanning front - I only spent a couple of hours walking along the Swansea beach wall and got third degree burns, so pack your sun-tan cream !

tomaky · June 23, 2014, 12:30

oooh s:)

s:) total milage going to be 610 :O long long day!

Aii think he said to me he cant understand why they made it so it nips the shoulder causing a tear. They certainly do, with some medling s:)

s:) somewhere in my project thread (in my signature) theres a picture of them. Basically what you have to do is fit your mr2 seat rails to the celica seat, not too hard of a job. im lucky that my celica seats came with a set of mr2 rails for me to fit.

Sounds good s:)

s:)

you can adjust the clatches a touch to make them initially easyer to reach the clasp.

StuC · June 23, 2014, 12:36

Quote from: "ducatiross"the upholstery man said "alcantara is rubbish and I won't work with it"!

I couldn't disagree more. I had a car with half leatehr half alcantara and those seats were awesome. Good level of grip, looks great. Having an alcantara centre also means you dont burn/freeze your ass (depending on season).
Also... Toyota thought it was so rubbish that the TF300's have half and half

Perhaps he has had bad experiences working with it. Doesn't mean it is rubbish.

kentsmudger · June 23, 2014, 13:50

Quote from: "ducatiross"

Never thought that a red hood would look as good on a silver as it does on the Sable Red Edition (my favourite combination) - But that has changed my mind - And for only £300 - Very tempted to trek to Swansea now!

tomaky · June 23, 2014, 14:48

quoted me 280 so all in with petrol im looking 380-400 depending on my right foot hehe

ayresyboy · June 23, 2014, 15:04

Fantastic value! I paid 400 second hand just for the hood material. Then I fit it myself. So definitely a great buy there. Well done.

tomaky · June 23, 2014, 15:08

just had idea as it seems hoods are becomnig more common to replace prob going to start a thread hoods the lot, as i know people have gone for different companies, for differerent prices and in different colours.

Richard41 · June 23, 2014, 17:33

Looks great, think mine will be making a trip to Swansea next year.

is in reasonable condition but having spent a lot of time cleaning & treating the hood with all sorts of products nothing ever makes it look good for more than a week or so, and never folds down properly due to tears where the ears strap should be.