Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Four seater hood secure

Hi owner of a 1999 fourseater 4/4 for last 5yrs,looking for way to latch hood to screen.at moment the header rail has a notch each end which hooks into screw with coller (this has slipped out twice now while driving leaving me a very panicking driver now when using hood.Has anyone had this problem and come up with a tidy and safe solution.Just thought I would ask before seeing Beamish Morgan .Cheers

Richard

From your description it sounds as if you have a Symmonds Hood. I am not 100% familiar with them but I would reckon that adjusting the length of the latch from the pivot point would tighten things up nicely.

I hope someone will be along who actually has one and can explain more eloquently and perhaps with photos

Any chance of posting a photo of the fitting / latch?

Sounds more like the Allon White version to me - the Simmonds version has over centre catches on each end of the header rail. We had the Allon White version on our 1985 2 seater. IIRC it depends on the hood being in tension to work correctly. If my assumptions are correct, you might want to check the rear of the hood to ensure that everything is still tight - on out 2 seater, the frame that was used at the rear could easily be bent out of shape which causes the hood to slacken. Need to see pictures of both ends to be sure though.

If it is the Allon White version, worth a phone call to see if you can speak to their head trimmer (Shaun) who will be able to offer advice.

Hi Paul I think you could be right car was bought at Allon Whites and serviced all its life there.with all the material in a four seater hood keeping it taught is a massive task ,just happened in the last year no mishaps up to then I wondered if anyone tried added catches at screen end.I noticed Allon Whites do not offer speed up hood for four seater and watched a old man and motor video made when my car came out 1998 and hood is same as mine so could be Morgan made.Cheers anyway.

Hi Graham I am trying to load pictures but have not mastered it yet going though process .No latches at screen end header rail just hooks on at each end.Cheers.

As standard, a 1999 car will have had a studded windscreen and no header rail on the hood. AW grind the studs off and re-fit the windscreen with what was the studded face inwards. When they did our old car (13 years ago) the face of the windscreen was made good with a substantial black tape.

The notch and peg arrangement you describe sounds very like the Allon White conversion. I am fairly certain that AW had a 4 seater conversion at one time. The refined their offer more recently when they stopped offering to convert an existing hood fabric and only offered a new hood as part of the conversion, Worth a phone call if they have people working - I suspect they will have a record of your car if they did a conversion on it.

Good luck in your quest for a solution.

This model of 4 seater ran from 1999 to 2004. The standard factory hood has a U section header rail fixed to the hood, so it fits over the screen, and there is a clamp each side that has a hook that locks onto the inner sides of the windscreen assembly.

The design is similar to the header rail on the 2 seater easy up factory hood, although the 4 seater driver does need advance notice to erect the hood

I don't have my 4 seater to take photos, but there is a You tube video showing hood at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9HfknjSX40 erection takes place at 3:26

From memory I seem to remember that the latches each side of the header rail were OK, although the bit on the side pillar where the hook gripped could have been iimproved for a better grip, mine was one of the last, the earlier models may have had a 'beta' design of latches

Sounds like the AW conversion to me too (my +4 had that when I bought it).

Richard, do't try to upload photos directly to here, that facility was disabled a while back to try to resolve the forum going slow.
Easiset is to join www.tm-img.com (set up by a TM member) and read the page on Instructions for use https://www.tm-img.com/page/ifu

Cheers,

Hi givern up on trying to post photo,since retiring I only have access to a Android phone and a kindle fire tablet and can't reduce size of photo to allow download.waiting for some latches from cardbuilder site to see if I can fit some sort of belt and braces fitting.Thanks for your interest.Cheers.