Tonneau Cover Fitment

[Richard Fritz]

I have a brand new tonneau for my 63 GT. I'm looking for advice, tips and/or tricks to fit it properly. The car has no Lift-A-Dot studs so they need to be installed and the tonneau has no Lift-A-Dot snaps installed either.
I'd prefer not to screw this up, so some advice would be appreciated. Thank you
Rich

 

[DanR]

Richard, There is a Gent that owns a beautiful Series III (I believe) he is a member of the Charleston British Car Club.

He would be a perfect person to contact.

He is also a friend of Eric Gibeaut (65Sunbeam) here on the Forum. 65Sunbeam is our Membership Director. Give him a PM....

 

[65sunbeam]

Dan-Richard is the guy with Todd's old yellow S3!
Rich-next time you are passing through stop by and I will loan you a factory tonneau cover you can use as a template to set up your new one. And we will take measurements on my Sunbeam to help you locate the Lift-A-Dot fasteners.

 

[hartmandm]

The factory drawing might help, too.

Mike

 

[alpine_64]

Have to be careful the drawing is a series I alpine.. The I/II have different locations to the S3-V.. Amd different cover.

 

[hartmandm]

Have to be careful the drawing is a series I alpine.

I have that drawing tagged as a series 3 to 5 drawing. The approval date is 2/8/1963. It mentions GT models and there are references to MK III, MK IV, and "Project 260".

Mike

 

[alpine_64]

Hey mike.. I zoomed in and can see those on the sheet... Interesting that they note project 260.. Reffering to the tiger.

Guess they didnt bother updating the base drawing.. The bosy is a series I by the screen and the B posts shape... Guess that doesnt matter if the dimensions are correct... Note that it supersedes drawing 5/4/1962.. Which would have been when they changed the location of the rear pins for the cover from the boot drain channel of the first style cover ;-)

 

[DanR]

Dan-Richard is the guy with Todd's old yellow S3!

Eric, I realized that after I went to bed last night..... got to thinking about that beautiful yellow Alpine

The three Sunbeam that represented the Rootes Group in Charleston, SC on a very nice day.... Your Green Tiger my Blue Boy V6 and Richard's Yellow GT. You took it and sent it to Todd, I think? That is Richard and

me in the PIC.​

 

[65sunbeam]

Photo taken last October. Seems like a long time ago when we could get together and talk cars closer than 6 feet apart! And no face masks either.....

 

[Wayne67vert]

Rich, I recently installed a new tonneau on my series V. I already had most of the posts on the car. I found a lift the dot punch at a boat canvas supplier.
I used binder clips attached to the tonneau with weights on them to help stretch it tight over the studs. I was then able to mark where to punch the clips.
My wife helped, it was good to have a 2nd pair of hands. It was time consuming, taking it off and back on for each clip.

 

[Tim R]

Rich,

This can be a surprisingly tricky job to do correctly. It is well worth taking your time and checking and double checking before you actually drill anything. Use gaffer tape to hold the tonneau in place and play around to get it absolutely perfect before you start to drill or cut anything. I love having a tonneau on an Alpine and when the lockdown is over I will be having a bespoke one commissioned for my Series V that accommodates the head rests on the MGF seats that I have fitted.

These are my tips on tonneau fitting (for what they are worth):

Before you start decide how you want the front end to attach. Some people use threaded lift-a-dots in the two central heater vent fixings (don't put tonneau pegs in the outer holes as they will sit too close to the glass to be of much use). Other people drill holes in the dashboard top roll (as per the drawing). If the roll top cover material has started to lift (which many have) when you drill it you have problems as the tonneau peg is then putting pressure on the roll top material which is actually lifted up from the metal. You end up with what look like dimples around the front tonneau pegs! (the material can then split at these points and you end up needing a new roll top).
Are you going to have a central peg on the consul behind the cubby box and a material strip from the lift-a-dot up to the rear of the tonneau zip? Some tonneaus have this, some don't. I think the idea is that when you are driving with half tonneau it holds the back down in the centre of the car at speed.
How are you going to attach the pegs at the back across the rear scuttle? People often make the mistake of just drilling holes here with the breather pipe still in position. This usually results in the pipe getting 'nicked' by the drill tip and when you go round corners you get a strong smell of petrol in the cabin as the vapour gets forced out of the pipe! We drill small holes in the rear scuttle top with larger holes in the lower panel beneath them. Then we use threaded fit-a-dots with penny washers and a lock nut beneath them. This also spreads the load and protects the peg and paintwork (self tapping pegs sometimes wear the holes larger and come loose over time). We use curved penny washers on the B post pegs for the same reason.
If you have door mirrors (depending on style) you can sometime use rubber circle fixings to go over the mirrors and secure the tonneau. This is not standard but is very effective. If you use a threaded tonneau peg you can get a penny washer behind it here on the door quite easily.
Obviously whatever holes you drill you need to protect the metal, rust proof and repaint it before fitting the pegs.
Make sure that every fitting is symmetrical and all pegs are evenly spaced. I don't think I've ever fitted a tonneau to a car that has no pegs whatsoever, normally it is a case of ensuring that the tonneau makes use of the pegs that are already on the car and then adding additional ones.
Do the job either on a warm day or when the tonneau is warmed with a heater and pliable to ensure that the tonneau is taut. If it goes on loosely it will just get looser and looser as time goes on, it will then start to flap at speeds and potentially damage the paint if it is flapping between pegs. If it is too taut at first it will at least loosen off over time. As Wayne says above it is helpful to have a second pair of hands to do this job.

Other people may do this differently but this is how we approach this task.

I hope that this might be of some use to you.

Good luck,

Tim R

 

[DanR]

All good words of advice... and thanks for the tips!

 

[DaveSeries1]

Related to the subject, has anyone ever fitted a S3 or later tonneau on a S1? I'm doing an S1, and can't find a correct cover for it. Thought I may have to fit a later one. Dave

 

[alpine_64]

Related to the subject, has anyone ever fitted a S3 or later tonneau on a S1? I'm doing an S1, and can't find a correct cover for it. Thought I may have to fit a later one. Dave

Dave the issue will be around the front of the door near the screen. The SI/II had a small window guide at the leading edge of the door.. The later series 3 onwards have a 1/4 window which comes further back.. This means the tonneau doesn't go as far forward on the doir and cuts around the window to the inside of the car. This would leave a gap to the inside of an early car and prevent it covering the interior at those areas.

 

[DaveSeries1]

Got it. Thanks for the input. I'll just wait until a correct cover comes my way. Still have a long way to go.