What's going on with my cabby's hood?

Hi there, I recently bought a 1989 gti cab which I'm bloody chuffed with…mostly.  The problem is that it was sold to me with a manual roof but hasn't got any gas struts, there is also a rocker switch fitted on the horizontally on the dash which has no wires attached but may have once contrelled a power hood.  There don't seem to be any other clues as to what system was originally fitted.  How can I find out? And can I get hold of the bits for either system anywhere?
Thanks,
New cabby owner (previously mk1 tin top).

I pretty sure I'm right that only cabs after 1990 have power hoods as standard.

Tell-tail signs for a manual one would be the hood release catches the sides of the rear seat to release. A power hood car will have blanking pieces instead.

A car with power hood will have a mounting backets for the pump and associated wiring in the boot on the left hand side. The fusebox will have a silver thermo fuse mounted at the top.

There are more things that will them apart but this will hopefully help.

Cheers,

Ross

Ok, here's what I've found.  The hood doesn't lock into position when down and there are no signs of any release catches other than the ones for the rear seats, I can't even see the remains of any locking mechanism.
There is a bracket on the left hand side in the boot, it's basically square with an extended bit sticking up in the middle.  I also took out the press studs and removed the card from behind this bracket and there is a bracket behind there aswell fitted between the outer skin and the card, it looks as if it's got the original paint on it.  Oh, the card also has a hole cut in it approx 2" x 1", I'm wondering if this gave access to an interlock switch???? :dontknow: Please, somebody, help me!!!!!!
Cheers,
Glen.

hey mate, i know on my cabby that the rear chair clips you talk of on the left and right have nothing to do with the actual chair and in fact lock my roof down into position and i cannot lift it back up! i dont know if this is the same bit you speak of.

The catches on either side of the rear seat on the black plastic yes? These are the ones for releasing the hood. Press one side down and lift the hood slightly then do the same the other side. That should do it!

Right, if its an 89 it could be a manual roof or an electric one.

inside the boot, open up the left hand panel and check for the pump, thats where it is located on the electric hood version. if its been nabbed, they may be some wiring left…

The panel will also have a round hole in it near bottom left hand corner for the valve

The manual hood has two push clips on both sides of the rear seat on the plastic between the window and the seat itself. an electric one has some rubber blanking things in the holes. The manual hood needs to be locked down by fold ing down the hood and giving it a good hard shove on the corners closest to the windows.

To fold down the rears seats in a cabbie you need to pull the seat forwards with a leather loop, its locked by a push plunger accessed from the boot lid on electric hood cars and I'm sure the same thing in on the manuals but my memory is a little sketchy!

I've owned both manual and electric so know my cookies! on reading what you have written so far it sounds like yours has been an electric hood model with it disengaged of completely removed!

Please re-check in the left hand rear panel and let me know if there are any remains in there.