Hood back window

[Carl Reading]

Putting the Stag away for the winter this afternoon and a bit of a disaster.
When I came to erect the hood the back window popped out. The zip holding it in has parted all the way round with the runner at the wrong end. I've tried to get the runner to the correct end with no luck and some of the teeth look a bit damaged. Looking at it the two sides of the zip look like they'll never meet, almost as if the plastic widow has shrunk.

Any ideas how to recover the situation?

If it needs a new zip can it be replaced with the hood in situ or does the roof need to come off.

[KOY 23]

Same happened to me, but I managed to get the zipper back on, was very fiddly. It is likely to come off again, where teeth are damaged. I was told that it's not possible to replace zip without removing hood. I now keep window permanently zipped in. Hood and window get tight in cold. Warm garage to help.

[LAMBRETTLAD]

The window is under tension ( on mine ) and even more in the colder weather ,I was advised to only fold the hood when the temperature was towards warm or use a fan heater to make the plastic softer.It makes sense has Ive had a plastic rear window crack whist putting the soft top down in the Autumn on a Z3
I suggest phoning around trimmers to see if its possible to fit a new zip in situ ,but I fear it's too difficult ,if you do find someone to do it please let me know

good luck cheers Alex

[jakesmig]

I had that happen with my hood, and I managed, with difficulty, to reinstate the zip although I always thought it was weaker. It parted another couple of times before I took the car off the road for restoration. The hood was off the car so I detached the hood and took it to a local trimmer for advice. Apart from the rear screen, the hood was in good condition, only being 6 years old, and we considered a new zip, which he said would be quite involved because of the way the zip is laid into the hood. I generally don't use the car with the hood up and the screen open so the cheaper option of sewing the zip in a closed position into the hood was adopted.

I always lowered the hood with the screen zipped up so from the operational point of view, in my case, nothing has changed.

John

[RobinLegin]

My hood is folded away for the winter with the window un zipped. I'm lucky enough to have a hard to for use from now on till the spring. Last year I had a new window and zip installed. Cost £250 at a local trimmers in Bournemouth.

[Motorcycle mad]

Is this sort of thing any use to you, there are plenty being advertised on eBay
Ken

item number 130960434433

[Staggering About]

Check Danny's article on my website http://www.grampianstags.net/Rear%20Window.htm
He did it .

[Carlton]

Same happened to me. I ended up super gluing the zip together. To stop the window creasing, I use a rolled up towel placed across the middle of the window when folding the hood.

[Carl Reading]

Re Carlton
Presumably super-gluing the zip together after you had managed to zip it up?

[Carlton]

That's correct. I could only zip a small amount at a time, as it kept opening up again just behind the zipper, so I glued as I went along.

[mike@thenook]

I've often thought about the hood and zipped in window problem (having had a zip fail two weeks after a brand new soft top was fitted) and wondered if it would be posssible to have the window secured by Velcro rather an a zip?
it would mean the window could be made in such a way as to be completely removeable so as to avoid bending it and getting it marked.
From what I can see it would not be difficult to have the zipper replaced with an extra piece of material all the way around and Velcro sewn into it plus Velcro sewn into the soft top.

I wonder if any of our hood fitters would be interested in trying out the idea?

Ill supply a drawing to make it easier to see what I mean.

Cheers

[V Mad]

A quick tip for a stubborn zip: spray it with silicone lubricant, available in aerosol cans.