Hunter hood, header bar stowage?

[kahawi]

Thank you to everybody for your suggestions, I’ve plenty to experiment with. So far I have discovered that our bar doesn’t fit behind the seats, on the Hunter. I’m not too happy with it jammed beside the passenger either.

I’ll play around fitting it inside the boot hinge, at least it would seem to be readily accessible for a downpour there, especially if the boot is packed with M’Ladies weekend accessories!

It seems that few respondents use the bar as intended, but I always made sure it is fitted over the winter, with the hood up and under cover just to keep the hood stretched into shape.

Let’s hope we don’t need it this summer, but that we do get some Marlin motoring miles on the clock.

Thanks again, Colin B

[philmcgrath]

I fit my bar for the winter and leave it there. In summer, the roof only goes up for security when I park in a public place or when caught by a heavy rain shower while driving. You don’t need the bar in just to get home. The hood flaps a bit but it stays dry inside.

ive never used the hood tonneau bag because it’s unwieldy.

I don’t need to get out of the car to put the up roof in rain. Pull over, reach over shoulder and pull up, clip the rail to screen frame and raise the windows.

[kieran78]

That is one beautiful car interior 👌

[marlinmick]

Hi All
Having been caught out in torrential rain whilst cruising around Millers Dale in Derbyshire a couple of week age I whipped up the hood from the driving seat just before the biggest raindrops ever started to fall and the hood proved to be totally water proof, some of the roadside lakes I drove through around Chatsworth even caused the carb to take in a gulp of the wet stuff through the K&N that caused a severe misfire (kangaroo petrol type of misfire) until we made Matlock then cleared itself,
On the journey back to Derby we remained dry and were very impressed with the hood, but that central loose hood frame bar drives us mad. I'm a Mechanical Engineer but I've not really had a chance to have a good look at it yet but surely by now someone must have worked a better idea/solution to (a) storing the loose bar in the car within quick easy reach or (b) incorporating it into the hood frame so that it comes up with the hood.
My bar is very awkward to position because the area where the bar locates in the hood side rails doesn't correspond very well with the velcro fixing tapes sown into the hood material so the bar keeps falling forward, I'm also very wary of banging the ends of the bar against the edge of the side windows and shattering the glass, now that would be a nightmare!

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Regards to All,

Mick.

[chris_cussen]

My bar stows nicely in the garage. It is a pain to carry and a pain to put in place.

[wiggiesworld]

My bar stows nicely in the garage. It is a pain to carry and a pain to put in place.

Thats pretty much how I use mine, have never installed it in 7 years of ownership. Don't even know if it fits. Hood still works fine.

[danny_nelson]

The bar is really only needed if you were going to be stationary for a long period (at a show for example) or overnight and you expected rain. By fitting this bar it helps to prevent ponding to the large flat area of hood material. Personally I have never used it any time when driving the car.

[ggrum]

Likewise. On the rare occasion I have had ponding on the roof I just open the door and gently push the roof up so the water runs off being careful to make sure it runs off on the other side. All part of the fun!!

[greyV8pete]

A word of caution if you have a Rover V8 engine with electronic ignition and the Hotwire airflow meter. Make sure you do tip the water off sideways. I didn’t once when leaving a local car show and when I braked a couple of pints of rainwater went over the front, down the windscreen and straight into the bonnet louvres, under which is the engine air intake! Water in such quantities puts the fire out in the Hotwire element so you have no throttle response! Had to be recovered home. Had I but known a 20 minute wait for the water to evaporate and I could have driven home!

[dave_kitson]

When I had the soft top fitted to my Cabrio (it now has a hard top), I always used the centre bar. It kept the hood taut and away from my head, and was not a problem to fit. It stowed in the folds when the hood was down, quite securely. Only word of caution - if it wasn't removed before erecting the hood, it could shoot out and bounce across the paintwork! Quite what the consequences would be of doing this on the move, don't bear thinking about. But I never did subscribe to putting the hood up while on the move anyway. The only other thing to consider is whether your car is SWB (as is mine) or LWB. The hood on mine folds neatly in equal parts, that on the LWB does not, as I recall, so could create further issues. Dave