Next on my to do list may be to replace the hood on the 216 cabriolet - I think it would be too complicated for me to do myself, and there is a localish place Northern Car Hoods that does them. Anybody have experience of this?

Just had a quote-just over £2000, plus vat! That is for a mohair hood, but a lot more than I paid for the car

Gold plated one that is expensive were was that ?

northern car hoods at Lymm - perhaps you got a free car with it?????

I used then a few years back. The job was well done. It was my second roof. The first one was cut following a failure of the little link arm that brings the roof in towards the car as the hood goes back. That replacement was a plastic roof which shrunk so badly that rain got in everywhere. I am very happy with the Mohair one that they put on, it was expensive even then but is still watertight. My only complaint was that despite the fact it would have been obvious once they took the roof off, no mention was made of the very rusty clamp bar that hold the back of the roof to the car. Eventually the continuous flow of rust and rusty water made my buy a refurbished bar from 961tat. The body shop that replaced the bar here in Oban said they took the old rusty bar out with a vacuum cleaner!!! I had hoped to put it back into the "system" for refurbishment, but it was beyond hope.

Richard

thanks Richard - good to know, although something a little cheaper would be good

I did mine myself, it was relatively easy & took me about 6 hours. Which ain't bad having never done one before. Mind you I am a Bodywork Technician by trade so have an unfair advantage

Luckily who ever replaced the roof previously had the forethought to use Stainless fixings, so I didn't have the dreaded Rusty bolts

As I started stripping it all become self explanatory

that would be about 6 weeks for me then

Who ever does it you are better off checking rear rail and side brackets at least get them blasted and coated a new hood is something that should be right , you don't want a rusty frame etc on a new hood .

North West hoods have done a good job on two cars ive seen , one i helped with side brackets and rear rail , but another I have seen they just glue the hood onto rust side brackets and one year later the canvas is bubbling so take care and get the prep right it will save you money in the long run and paint / powered coat best done aleast a week in advance .

Need any parts just shout

Here in France for a mohair hood (value £700 from England) to put in place of the old plastic one, a guy charged a little more than £400 for a pretty neat job 3 years ago. Very well done and fully waterproof and they de-rusted some parts of the mechanism.