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Posted By : David Pyman, 31-Mar-2006, 03:35pm
I have got a good used vinyl tonneau that needs fitting to my car, it already has some eyelet holes in it and my car has poppers on body already,but i'm
not sure if they line up yet..is there a specific way or order to fitting it to my car or can i fit and position eyelets in whatever order i like.I
positioned it roughly the other day but it was probably too cold so there was no give in the vinyl,so it didn't line up very well.i probably need to warm
it up indoors for a few days first.Anyone know the correct way to go about this job
,Thanks
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Posted By : Paul Bodiam, 31-Mar-2006,
04:30pm
Hi David
Pick a warm sunny day. Sunlight is excellent for softening the vinyl.
The poppers on the rear body tub should line-up without any problems since the tonneau uses the same poppers as the hood. Start from the centre and
work outwards, easing the tonneau onto each popper. It is quite likely that you will not be able to fit it to the popper at the top of the B post
initially, but you can come back to that one once the vinyl has softened a bit.
Next, hook the tonneau onto the lugs on the windscreen demister vents.
The usual problems come along the doors: these get re-skinned over the years and the popper positions are not always faithfully preserved or, as on my
car, have no poppers at all. Try to ease the tonneau onto the poppers that are nearest in alingment. Once the tonneau is nice and warm, there is quite
a lot of stretch possible and you can then try to ease it onto the remaining poppers. If there are poppers that still refuse to line-up, then there is
little you can do other than fit a new popper to the tonneau and/or the doorskin.
Hope this helps
cheers
Paul