The 'E' Type Forum

I may need to find a Hard-Top for an event that I am considering taking part in.

I have never looked at one of these close up and have no idea how they fit, or what you do with the hood etc - pretty basic questions I know.

Could somebody confirm that you just leave the hood in place, presumably under its bag, that they just fasten on brackets on the haunches next to the hood frame pivots, have the same clips / catches as my standard hood, and have the same capacity to have the cantrail rubbers adjusted to fit (a vague concept, that I do know) the window glasses ?

Please hold my hand.

My hood-pivot brackets are a stainless version that may not be like the originals, but my shell does have the threaded lugs to take the mounting bolts for the hard-top brackets.





Where does the Pull-To-Lift stud for the hood-bag sit once those hard-top brackets are in place ?

Are you wishing to buy or borrow? Maybe someone in France or southern England might have one you could borrow in exchange for a bottle or two of French plonk?

Geoff

Yes Geoff, that would be ideal but perhaps improbable 🤨 - tho’ I would pay more than wine juice.

My idea was to buy one and then sell it afterwards. Unless I get a taste for it maybe.

Prices asked for them seem to vary wildly, there is one on Ebay - looks great but could it really be worth 10.500€ ?

Ideally you will want to remove the folding hood sticks because the assembly is quite heavy, as is the hardtop. Extra weight is your enemy on a rally! Also liberates more space for clothes etc.

Putting the hardtop on the car is easy although a two man exercise. Front clips on to existing clamps, sides slide onto those seemingly pointless chrome brackets every OTS comes with. You will need the originals. Most owners report the hardtop marks the paintwork where the rubber seal sits as it squirms when the car is driven. Best to put some clear tape down before attaching.

That price seems fair as it is complete with all chrome, looks to have been restored already and is already in Europe. Prices in the US have reached stupid levels - $35,000+. if you find a rough one you will probably need the invariably missing chrome which is unobtainable other than the brass repros. Rear screens are plastic and will need replacement as will the headlining. Doubt you would find one, restore it and have it ready for the coming season.

Rory...have a look here...its a repro but a mate has one and only the experts would know.....seller isn't far from me and its the son of Nick Goldthorp who was MD of CMC.... Steve https://ebay.us/m/Cx7mNG

Hi Rory,
Here a few pics of my installation when I put the hardtop.
No need to remove the soft top but you must remove the soft top cover.



Here a detail of the bracket when the soft top is up:


And here a detail of the bracket for attaching the hardtop:


Hope it helps

Have a couple on the boil now, thanks to everyone.

And to Serge, great, j'ai tout compris.

paydase wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 10:34 am

No need to remove the soft top but you must remove the soft top cover.

Indeed but it makes the cabin a lot more pleasant place to be. The SNGB OTS has a hardtop and the hood has been removed. Driven it and I was most impressed.

Update.

I bought a really nice original one, with excellent chromes, good perspex, and even the lining isn't bad.

The fibreglass looks a bit "hairy" through the paint in places, but nothing too bad.































Could anyone with more knowledge than myself tell me if all that is original ?

Is there an exploded parts diagram anywhere that shows what the trimming panels are underneath, how the cantrails are done, whether the cantrail rubbers are adjustable - once the trim is removed ?

Or am I going to have to become an authority on the subject ?

I can't see anything in the J30 parts book.

It's a winter project but I am going to re-do it completely, paint, head-lining the lot.

Further query : has anyone found a way to make the soft-top and roof-sticks Quickly Demountable ?

Jack at BAS rackons it could perhaps be done with a zip, whilst leaving the rear chrome trim in place, but it's unlikely to be very discreet or elegant, and I wouldn't want to be the first to try it - BAS have never done it.

Otherwise it's turnbuckles and C°, which changes the appearance too much, and requires consideration of the hood-bag.

It must be nice to have a hard-top without the soft-top sitting behind you, as David observed.

Why do some of the pictures in this tread not show on my laptop?

They show as postimg.cc/xxxxxxx but nothing shows. If I click on it, Postimg page opens, sometimes showing nothing till I click in the image space when an apparently large image shows. Other times a picture opens but the space is blank when I return

Photos all show up for me....try another device or browser....Steve

Hi Rory.....lots of rebuild info on JagLovers and some good YouTube videos from JL members....Steve

Great, many thanks, will go looking on JL.

Does anyone know what the reference is of those cheese-head chromed screws, two per side, seen in the pictures, that hold the slotted-hole drop-links that bolt to the cheek plates ?

I did find (last page 322 in J30 ?) some sort of partial Hard-Top parts list, but the screws referred to as BD20092/2 are universally illustrated by suppliers as CSK, PLUS they are only shown as 2 per car, so they cannot be these.

Looks to be all lovely and original to me.

rfs1957 wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 20, 2026 3:55 pm

Update.

I bought a really nice original one, with excellent chromes, good perspex, and even the lining isn't bad.

The fibreglass looks a bit "hairy" through the paint in places, but nothing too bad.

Could anyone with more knowledge than myself tell me if all that is original ?

Is there an exploded parts diagram anywhere that shows what the trimming panels are underneath, how the cantrails are done, whether the cantrail rubbers are adjustable - once the trim is removed ?

Or am I going to have to become an authority on the subject ?

I can't see anything in the J30 parts book.

It's a winter project but I am going to re-do it completely, paint, head-lining the lot.

Re your question about the hardtop's originality, I can't say much based on these photos except that the closeup shots of the headliner patterning reveal that the headliner is not original. (Photo below shows an original headliner's patterning (though the photo quality is poor and the color is off).) But the headliner's color seems like a good approximation of an original, and the top as a whole looks nice.

I have been restoring my hardtop piecemeal over the past few months. A couple of comments with respect to bolts - I found that all of the original chrome bolts holding the side mounting brackets to the hardtop snapped off when trying to undo. These are all steel into steel threaded inserts in the grp. Looking at availability (or not) of chrome replacements, I decided to go with polished metric stainless bolts and drilled out the threaded inserts and re-tapped them. Worked well for me.

I notice from the earlier images that the rear screen chromes have small screws at their intersection, covered by the chrome trim piece. There are holes in the chrome, but I'm 99% sure the holes would have originally been for handling purposes during factory chroming. However, if suitably flat headed screws can fit under the cover pieces, it will definitely help retain the strips, although adhesive is required in any case

Rory, to me the lining in non-original, all the rest is.
Cheers,