Cabriolet hood wires.

Hi guys!

My MK1 clipper cabriolet hood has lifted at the sides and kind of arched which means it leaks slightly now.

I think it is the wires that have broken so was going to replace these and see if it helps before I shell out on a new hood completely.

How much of a difficult job is this? Also does it make it more difficult that my hood is electric?

Thanks in advance.

Depending on where you are in the counrty, the chaps at Northern Car Hoods on the below left << should be able to help you out.

I need a bottow wire for mine and it costs ?30 fitted. For that kind of money I'd let them do it and have the stress.  :wink:

Oooo, they're only about an hour away from me, could be a winner then!

I don't know much about the hoods, how many wires are there? And do you reckon (from how it's lifted) that the wires could be the problem?

Thanks  

I fitted the side wires to mine the other weekend, and it was actually much less trouble then I was expecting!  I'm rubbish at this sort of thing and have no patience whatsoever!

There is one wire on either side of the roof - got mine off ebay cheap, but I'm sure there's loads of suppliers out there to try.

I used a wire coat hanger and some black electrical tape and someone to provide a spare pair of hands, and it didn't take very long at all!  Although I have a manual hood so I'm not sure how this affects things - I did some opening and shutting of the roof during the process - when roof is half open, there's more access and less tension you see.

I straightened out the wire coat hangar, then turned the one end back on itself tightly and wrapped it the tape so there weren't any sharp edges, then formed a hook on the other end.

Using the handy guide here http://www.vwgolfmk1.co.uk/Main/Hood_Replacement_lo_res.pdf

Locate where the cables attach - you can see the front attach bit in the bottom picture on page 7 of the above guide, then the rear at the top of page 8.

the rear attachment on mine has a "v" shape cut out of the metal on the c pillar part of the hood frame, I managed to reach round and locate it - basically a spring is attached to the piece of metal with a bit of plastic around it, and you want to attach the hood cable to this spring - I removed the spring.

I then fed the coat hanger through the roof until it reached the hole at t'other end.  I then attached one end of the tensioner cable to the front hook on the roof, and the other end onto the loop in the coat hanger and wrapped in electrical tape to prevent sharp edges.

With the roof up, I then got inside and pulled the coat hanger into the car and got hold of the cable by reaching round the back of the c pillar bit.  I then reattached to the spring, put on the black tubey thing and pulled the spring back on to the metal v shaped bit stamped out of the frame and was done!

hope that makes sense - difficult to describe, and you never know my hood could have had missing parts that made my job easier.

Just have a look around and see if you can find the locations of the tensioner hooks etc… and go from there.

Wow!

Thanks for that, me and a friend were going to attempt it together so I'd have a spare pair of hands!

May attempt them then, I think I found the wires on GSF website so could get them from there.

 

here's some for a fiver:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-GOLF-MK1-2-SOFT-TOP-HOOD-CABRIO-CONVERTIBLE-CABLES_W0QQitemZ170383202306QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item27aba15802&amp;_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

good luck!!

Wicked, will buy them when I get home, egay is blocked at work!  

Thanks again!  

its easy to do the side tension cables. On the later models they are anchored to springs located behind the frame (you may need to bend the retaining tabs open a litle to get the springs off). Just use some stiff wire as above. On early models the springs are at the front. On mine thay are attatched to a metal peg on the front of the frame. The springs may be in plastic pockets too on the rear, you will need to open the top to the midway position, this takes the stress off and alows the intallation easier.

if its got the early type side cables you cant do this without taking the hood material off at the front, theres no way you can reach the springs to release the cables otherwise. if its the latewr type as above its easy peasy.  Also note the early/late cables are different lengths!

its not actually that hard to pop off the hood material, theres a row of screws along the front holding clamp plates down, also the rubber seal strips either side above the windows need removing. Once all that is off carefully peel the hood skin back and replace the cables, then reglue the hood skin where it was with contact adhesive and replace the clamps and rubber holders. You can use the markings & holes to line it up exactly where it was before you removed it.