How to close the door?

[Ali King]

Hi,

I'm a new TR4a owner and new to the register. My car looks ok from a cursory glance, but really does need quite a lot doing which I'm hoping to do gradually as a rolling improvement. This forum has been very useful to me so far, thanks, and I will probably be asking a good few questions here, so thanks in advance.

I'm going to start by asking what must seem like the most naive question - how do I close the door from the outside with the soft top up? There is a small flap which goes over the top and rear of the window on the outside presumably to keep the weather out, but the door won't open easily unless the window is lowered a bit - ok from the inside, but not possible to raise the window again once out! So I can't close the door with the window closed. What am I missing?

Alistair.

(sorry, forgot to actually take a pic with soft top up)

[AndyR100]

Welcome to the forum, all questions are good.... in this case the vinyl flap goes inside the glass rather than outside.

enjoy your new car, drive it plenty to get a real feel for for it

...... Andy

[Ali King]

Ahh, thank you Andy.

The dealer told me the flap went on the outside - which seemed to make sense to me as that would presumably do a better job of keeping the rain out, but I think he didn't really know these cars. The other thing was that the little flap at the bottom (in the picture) seemed more comfortable of the outside, though I thought it was a bit of a pain to have to keep remembering to put it out.

So much easier now I know!

[AndyR100]

The design for keeping water out wasn’t great to be honest, but at the time perhaps a big stride from side-screens. 

The later covers have more pronounced channels to try and route rainwater away from the more obvious entry-points, but still not perfect.

....... Andy 

[Lebro]

Ehem,  actually the sidescreen hoods when correctly fitted are very good at keeping the water out,

they have a flap which does go outside of the top of the sidescreen.

Bob.

[DavidBee]

9 minutes ago, Lebro said:

actually the sidescreen hoods when correctly fitted are very good at keeping the water out

+1

[AndyR100]

 ... I wondered how long it would take  

[Bleednipple]

Alistair, also - if your hood has two vinyl 'flaps' above each window opening, running fore-and-aft horizontally, the inner one is supposed to sit on the inside of the window glass, and the outer flap on the outside of the glass. That will keep a lot of water out in heavy rain, although it does mean you may have to drop the window slightly to be able to open the door. So in dry(ish) weather you can just shut the door glass over both flaps, even though it won't look at neat.

In practice none of the TR hoods (and sidescreens on the earlier cars) designs will act perfectly to keep every drop of water out. Get used to letting the interior dry off when you can, to avoid rotting the carpets or in the longer term the body tub itself.  But don't fret about it unduly, just enjoy the car.

Nigel

[Ali King]

Nigel, just a single flap on mine.

I'm not too precious, so a bit of rain is fine with me - though I will be trying to avoid it.

Alistair.