Hood tearing rubbers

Hi all
My hood seems to be catching on the rubbers that go round the edge under the tonneau cover. They were already a bit torn and I think I am making them worse. Do they all do this or is it just my dodgy fitting hood?
Any suggestions how to avoid this? I can see more water trouble if they get any worse and I think they are expensive to replace from what I've seen on here.
xS

Same problem but only if i raise the hood from drivers side,it catches the pasengers side rubber.if i raise it from pasenger side no problem,thats what i do now .

Thanks Bill at least i know its not just me - bad design though! I struggle to lift the hood on my own anyway so usually have someone on the other side
xs

I too have the same problem. Not sure why it does this. I thought that the original PVC didn't rub but am not sure.

I've got the original PVC hood on mine and it does this as well.

Thats a bugger. Sounds like nothing to be done.
xs

Hmmm, mine is fine (famous last words).....

Well I thought it might be something to do with how my roof has been fitted as you know I've had problems with it. But it sounds like the others have the same problem. The edge of the roof as it folds up catches on the rubber as it goes past it in and out of the storage compartment. Does your roof totally clear it then Lee? Mine already has quite bad tears.
xs

Mine totally clears it, although the rubbers are a little worn through age!!

Mine recently started to catch too, after 7 years of trouble free hooding (is that the term?). When it catches, it lifts the seal right off the seam which hooks around the bottom corner of the roof and leaves you with a semi. By that I mean the roof half up! It doesn't look so cool when it starts to rain and you pull over at the nearest lay-by, get out of the car only to have the roof seemingly resisting your wishes. I think some new seals are in order - perhaps there may be a discount if enough of us want them - I certainly do. I've heard that they are quite expensive. Still, it's better than getting an embarrassing semi in a lay-by on the A3 on a friday evening

On my car it was lifting the seal right off sometimes. It was only catching on the bottom part of the seal though. The bit that does the actual 'sealing' wasn't touched.

I ended up cutting a small piece out of the bottom part of the seal at the point where it was catching.

I only cut out about an inch of the front lower part of the seal. It worked like a charm. It doesn't lift off now and no leaks!

most of the B's do it...

it has to do with misalignment of the hood (brute force lifting related)

the easiest to tell is if you "close & lock" the hood (hood up), you'll notice a certain curvature... all fine so far. But if you look closely at your windows you'll see that the roof does not follow the edge of window. It is most likely a bit more "rounded up" in the middle. This is normal, but it might be too much. You can probably "see" that by looking at the rubbers and how the windows seal and how much overlap (*)

These are the middle "ribs" sitting a bit too high.. and thus when lowering the hood, too far to rear, thus dragging the fabric against the rubber seals.

Now.. this will cost you at least one day to get this right. You need to play around with bolts and screws and levers to lower the middle "ribs" about 5 millimeter, ensuring that the fabric still "streches" between the front and the rear. So, some minor adjustment front and back to keep the tension might be needed also.

The idea is to get the "whole roof" to "flatten" and move forward by about 5 to 7 millimeter while still having all the rubbers sealing.


As i said.. i fun job to keep you busy all day



You might get away with a "lowering of the whole hood" at the central styles thou.


(*) Sorry it IS difficult to explain... since LRB does not seem to have the problem, i suggest he takes some macro pictures of that area

It is a design feature, mine has done this from day one.

I was advised that the use of a mallet and a cloth to soften the blow should er bend the frame and that might solve the problem.

If your struggling to lift the hood it may need new gas struts as talked about on a previous thread. The hood catching is common as you have found out and it also was the same with my barchetta with the PVC and the new hood. I also think it's one of the reasons why that rubber perishes so quickly. I found that lifting the hood from neerer the centre was better but you may have to find your own method that works. Making it easier to lift may help the way that you can lift the hood to prevent the problem, meantime just lift it slowly to minimise the chance of any damage.