Steve Priest Posted February 22, 2013 Report Share Posted February 22, 2013 I'm thinking about getting a fibreglass roof panel for my TR4. Reason being that I already have a GRP backlight, so not too worried about maintaining originality, and I think a TR4 looks great with a hardtop. Also, I'm hoping it'll be slightly lighter than a steel top so I'll be able to fit it and remove it without assistance. I'm currently looking at the Moss and Revington offerings. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of either of these? Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Boyd Posted February 22, 2013 Report Share Posted February 22, 2013 Moss one works fine Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Priest Posted February 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2013 Do you have the "pop-in headlining" for the Moss roof? I haven't been able to find any pictures, so interested to know what it looks like. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tr4Tony Posted February 22, 2013 Report Share Posted February 22, 2013 No but you can put in some original ones by adding a couple of small aluminium angle brackets, as per the original roofs. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Noel Maule Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 Have you tried Honeybourne Mouldings 01789 774603 They have a good web site too. Noel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stuart Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 I'm thinking about getting a fibreglass roof panel for my TR4. Reason being that I already have a GRP backlight, so not too worried about maintaining originality, and I think a TR4 looks great with a hardtop. Also, I'm hoping it'll be slightly lighter than a steel top so I'll be able to fit it and remove it without assistance. I'm currently looking at the Moss and Revington offerings. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of either of these? Steve I think you will find that they both come from the same suppliers, just that one is more expensive than the other As stated Honeybourne is actually the suppliers for all AFIK, their ones are available with a Flock lining. Stuart. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Priest Posted February 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 Thanks chaps - I'll take a look. My backlight has a grey flock lining so it might actually match. Interested to find out what the 'pop-in headliniing' looks like as well. Moss don't have any pictures on their website. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Priest Posted April 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 (edited) I originally posted this as I couldn't find any information or photos on the various GRP roof options that are available (not even from the suppliers). I thought it would be useful to update this post with a few details and pictures as it may be helpful to other people. I eventually decided to purchase a GRP roof panel from Honeybourne Mouldings. The panel is available in white or black, however, as I wanted it to match my signal red TR4 I ordered it with a white gelcoat and (as advised by H M) requested that it wasn't waxed. It comes with edge seals loosely fitted and two rolls of thick adhesive foam for the front and rear seals. The sides of the panel have aluminium gutters screwed in place. It is supplied with a set of four M8 bolts. The interior surface is flock sprayed and is light grey in colour. I had the panel painted by a local bodyshop. They were impressed with the overall quality of the moulding. They did a little bit of work to remove a few imperfections and improve the profiling of the edges, some of which were a little rough. I decided to replace the supplied edge seals with a single length of black furflex from Woolies (264-BLK) and replace the supplied zinc plated bolts with some stainless cap head bolts for ease of fitting. One thing to be a aware of is the captive nuts are metric (M8) and therefore won't accept the imperial roof bolts available from Moss and others. For the rear chrome capping I used a plastic capping strip from Revingtons (806175X), held in a place at each end with a little bit of epoxy. I added a few self-adhesive felt dots (normally used to stop furniture marking wooden floors) to the contacts points to hopefully stop it scratching the paint on the surrey backlight when fitted. Initially I wasn't planning on refitting the gutters however a few tests with my garden hose suggested that this would be a bad move, so I polished them and refitted them with stainless self tappers. One bit of advice; I recommend vacuuming the flock interior before a. bringing it into the living room or b. fitting it to your car. Overall I'm very pleased with the result. I've included some pictures from before and after painting and also fitted. Steve Edited April 23, 2013 by Steve Priest Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ragtag Posted April 22, 2013 Report Share Posted April 22, 2013 Thanks Steve,that is a really helpful post. I've been umming and ahring about this as I always seemed to miss out when a steel one came up for sale. However, originalty is not my thing so I have come to the conclusion that GRP is the way to go. Just out of interest, what did it turn out like for weight? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Priest Posted April 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 Chris - It's suprisingly light, even lighter than I expected. I can lift it into place and remove it without assistance. Before getting it painted I spent some time making some minor adjustments to the screen and backlight position. The front and rear holes line up really well so it only takes a few minutes to fit or remove. Steve Quote Link to post Share on other sites
AndrewMAshton Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 (edited) Steve, how does it attach to the front windscreen, like you, I have a surry back-light with the chrome strip and two holes for the locating bits of the frame, it does look good and looks well on the car, cheers, Andrew Edited April 23, 2013 by AndrewMAshton Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Priest Posted April 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 (edited) Hi Andrew, It bolts through the same two holes that are used to locate the surrey top frame rubbers. Hopefully you should see that the holes in the chrome capping are aligned to two smaller holes in the top of the windscreen frame. The bolts are inserted from below through the windscreen frame, through the capping and screw into captive nuts in the roof panel. Each front bolt needs a spacer, see here, item #43 (613508): http://www.moss-europe.co.uk/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=2374 The diagram shows the spacers being inserted from below, however I think they need to be inserted from above into the chrome capping (at least, that's the only way that works for me). The rear of the roof is attached with two shorter bolts through the backlight in the same was as for the surrey top frame. Steve Edited April 23, 2013 by Steve Priest Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Superaquarama Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 I looked at the catalogues for prices of GRP assemblies and was a bit overwhelmed - starting from scratch there seem to be so many little fittings and fiddly bits and it's hard to know exactly what you need and don't need, so I gave up for the time being as the car's still months away from completion. It seems surprising that no-one supplies a complete kit, or even a complete ensemble ready to drop on. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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