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Convertible boot shrinkage

bobbo

bobbo

Gold Level Sponsor
Seems my boot for the stowed top has had an issue of shrinkage. The body "lift the dot" pins and boot clips are a good 3/4 inch separated. pulling doesn't help and the warmer weather still wont allow for stretching the vinyl boot enough.
Thinking about : moving the body pins 3/4 inch to mate up with the boot clips - or - making some extensions with spare parts to span the gap.
Any suggestion or solutions you have found will be much appreciated. For now the boot will flap in the wind.
Cheers; bob
 
Shrinkage.... age related.. I've used silicone sprays and oil of Wintergreen with good results. I've also hung stuff with dive weights hanging to assist in stretching out. Often the stitching gives out. Possibly there's something in a temperature controlled storage area. Leaving a top down in storage isn't great, I guess the same goes for a tonneau cover. The only material I have been really happy with is the Acrilan boat sail cover material as a full tonneau. The bane of some covers is that they can chafe the finishes they are up against.
 
bobbo said:
Seems my boot for the stowed top has had an issue of shrinkage. The body "lift the dot" pins and boot clips are a good 3/4 inch separated. pulling doesn't help and the warmer weather still wont allow for stretching the vinyl boot enough.
Thinking about : moving the body pins 3/4 inch to mate up with the boot clips - or - making some extensions with spare parts to span the gap.
Any suggestion or solutions you have found will be much appreciated. For now the boot will flap in the wind.
Cheers; bob
Click to expand...
I wouldn't relocate the pins. At worst make extension tabs with snaps and have them sewn to the cover .. better than drilling new holes in the body and having to sets of atuds sticking up ..or having to plug the originals
 
Buy a new one from Martha Christensen, the new material is much more plyable and stretchy. As Michael says don't redrill.
 
Knightowl61 said:
You could add a "lift the dot" to the boot in the places thats needed.
Click to expand...
I would suspect that given its shrunk the issue is the cover no longer reaches the pegs. And the SV cover has the fasteners close to its extremities.. so probably not going to be practical to add to the existing cover
 
Yeah, these always shrink. I think the trick to accommodating to them shrinking so much is to initially install them a bit loose, particularly between the fasteners. They’ll flop about for the first few years but will eventually look properly fitted.
 
Thanks for all your comments. Finaly decided to relocate the 4 body pins.
I'll have to weld the old holes up this winter as I prep for fresh paint.
Glad to have the cover in place and looking good.
 

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bobbo said:
Thanks for all your comments. Finaly decided to relocate the 4 body pins.
I'll have to weld the old holes up this winter as I prep for fresh paint.
Glad to have the cover in place and looking good.
Click to expand...
Do you have a tonneau cover?
It's your car and can do what you wish..
But I really find it perplexing that you wouldn't add tab extenders from the underside of the snaps to the original studs...
Now you will have to do bodywork and any future tonneau would not fit...
Also... The studs are placed out to avoid a hardtop sitting on them... So assume you don't have or plan to get one...
 

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Right, no toneau cover and no factory hard top.
Just glad to have the boot able to snap down.
As I mentioned body and paint this fall.
 
New thought. : I'll be keeping things as i have made them for now. Come fall however, I'll remove the boot and have an extra 2 inches or so added to the lower edge of the boot that is attached to the body bow area just behind the seats. This will allow the original mounting, lift the dot pegs to be put back in the original location and I'll have lots of material to adjust the fit as it gets re-fastened to the bow area behind the seats. I'll fill in the new holes I made while doing body touch up for new paint. No extender tabs or new boot required.
Cheers, and thanks for your suggestions. Bob
 
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