Firstly it is important to ensure the car is the right shape. If the car has been rebuilt and especially if the floor pans and sills have been replaced it is easier for the body shell to end up longer than standard, than it is for it to be shorter.  The chassis on TR4A-6 are notoriously weak and can bend in the middle which will result in the rear of the cockpit moving away from the top of the windscreen. Check your car against similar cars of good provenance to ensure your cockpit dimensions are correct. For reference on a car with a backlight frame to accommodate a surrey top, we know the dimension between the holes in the top of the windscreen frame for the surrey spider frame and the holes in the backlight frame to accommodate the spigots of the rear frame is 760mm.

 

Covers are made from hooding material which can either be vinyl or mohair. These materials when new are relaxed and must be significantly stretched when being fitted to ensure a taut fit in service. This stretching will require significant force which must be aided by ensuring the cover is not just warm but really quite hot, equivalent to a very hot summer's day in direct sunlight so that the cover becomes a floppy bag. In this way the cover will be taut at speed and on seriously hot days and not revert to a floppy bag. This level can be achieved with a hot air gun, hair dryers or a fan heater, ensuring all safety requirements are met. It will be surprising how far the material will stretch and how this amount of stretching when the cover is fitted will result in neat installation with no creases in the material.

We appreciate that our English terminology (French actually in the case of Tonneau) can sometimes be confusing. Here are our definitions of a Hood, a Hood Cover a Tonneau and a Surrey Top.

 

In our modern world of global trading terms we use for products can be confusing. The products in question here are particularly confusing as for example a hood to us in the UK is the cloth bit over your head, yet in the USA it is the bit over the engine (a bonnet to us). This FAQ should clear matters up.

 

A HOOD is the cloth part of the complete hood assembly that goes over the Hoodstick assembly from the rear deck to the top of the windscreen. Confusingly Triumph in some parts books refer to the hood as a hood cover. This is also often referred to in common language as a Soft Top.

A HOOD STOWAGE COVER is a tidy cover over the hood and hoodsticks (hoodsticks only in the case of TR2-3A) when folded away and sits around the back of the cockpit attached to the rear deck. A TR4 does not need one as the hoodsticks are folded behind the cockpit rear squabs. Most Triumph parts books refer to the stowage cover as a Hood Stowage Cover Assembly but in everyday language this cover is often simply refereed to as a hood cover.

A TONNEAU cover goes over the whole cockpit from the rear deck to the base of the windscreen and zips up the middle so it can be used whilst driving or as a complete cover whilst parked.

A SURREY TOP is the cloth part only fitted when the hard centre panel is removed from a hart top TR4, 4A, 250, and 5.