T-Bar cover

[Guest]

Calling all Stag experts!

I am buying my first stag (not picked it up yet) but it has a torn T-bar cover. Does anyone know if this is easy to replace?
Thanks.

[Ian F]

Never done one, but mine’s zipped so I imagine it shouldn’t be too difficult. Someone will be along soon to confirm.

ian F

[Guest]

Thank Ian I appreciate you getting back to me.

[new to this]

yes it's not that bad a job to do,if the foam is worn change that as well

Dave

[Jonat127]

Fitting the cover isn't too bad but putting the T bar back is quite tricky. My suggestion is to get/make something that will go between the tops of the two door pillars to hold them apart. When I took my T bar off the tops of the pillars moved in by about half an inch meaning it was a real struggle to get the bolts back into the top of the T bar.

[StagJonno]

Good point, Jonat127. Almost certainly there'll be some movement of the B pillars when the T bar is released, but the direction will depend on the stresses in the chassis. Only time I released mine, movement was more fore/ aft and needed judicious jacking underneath plus ratchet straps to get the holes lined up.

Jonno

[Ctwidle]

The NS arm without the zip can be tight to slide over new foam. I believe wrapping the foam in gladwrap/clingfilm or the like is supposed to make it easier.

[mopoole]

The NS arm without the zip can be tight to slide over new foam. I believe wrapping the foam in gladwrap/clingfilm or the like is supposed to make it easier.

Clingfilm makes the job very easy; had to do mine twice as the cover was damaged 2 weeks after replacing the first time
Agree with #5 & #6, needs a lot of force to get the bolt holes to line up when refitting
Maurice

[alan_thomas]

Recovered mine last year points I noted were:-

• Foam is old and hard after 40 years will almost certainly need replacing I bought Foam and cover from Aldridges, quality was good but had to add another layer of foam about 5mm thick to underside of Tee bar to fully stretch the fabric, without it it still had a few wrinkles.
• I used cling film on just the fully sewn arm of the Tee. (One arm is sewn on both sides the other is sewn on one side and zipped on the other). The rest pulled over without problems because I didn't want the fabric to slide around on the foam after I had finished.
• You need a good quality impact adhesive to glue the front and B post tuck under bits, I used
• You need to stretch the fabric quite hard to get it to lay nicely around the B post bolts, make only a small hole for the bolts as the fabric will try to stretch away and open up the holes.
• When fitting the fabric around the front part of the Tee you cannot leave too much as it will stop the front section fully locating and you will have problems lining up the screws and sun visor screws. cut away all double thickness material and avoid overlaps in the material that wraps under the front.
• I used ratchet straps to pull the finished Tee bar forwards a few mm to align the B post bolts
• I bought Beige to match the interior. All originals were black regardless of trim colour but the beige looks good and brightens the cabin more than the black when you are seated in the car

Not difficult but worth taking your time to ensure you get a neat job - Alan