Having owned the car for 4 weeks now – and not a drop of rain in sight, until yesterday – I needed something against the relentless sunshine. Don’t get me wrong, I will be the last to complain about the sunshine we have had recently, but sitting in 20 mph traffic with the radiator fan in overdrive, plus the sun beating down, has been too much. Add to this the amazing job that the side panels do in keeping your nuts roasted, and something had to change.
This is ‘template 2’ of the project (first mentioned here viewtopic.php?f=54&t=17119 under ==Stuff I Am Still Worried About==) but it’s pretty much there.
Template 1 was a lot of messing about with stitching velcro hoops around the chassis, but I quickly opted for a simpler solution – sticking Velcro to the chassis and using this as anchor points.
Let me explain…
When you pick up a Nomad, there is helicopter tape applied to the two struts where you get in and out. In less than a week, the tape proved it’s worth as it was scuffed and clearly doing its job. I replaced this tape with the loop side of Velcro (fluffy side) as I thought this would be more hard wearing.
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Then I went on to add the same to the top bars (where you grab on to when getting in / out) and finally the back of the roof bars for good measure.
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This gave me a starting point to mount a roof cover that would be easy to attach and take off, but also provide paintwork protection against rings and overzealous passengers launching themselves inside the car.
Not all sticky Velcro is the same though. There is rubber resin based, rubber block copolymer and water based acrylic polymer. Some is fire retardant and some is high temperature resistant. That alone wasted 4 hours of my life and I still have no clue!
https://www.hookandloopfasteners.co.uk/ ... ations.pdf
Anyway, with the PS-15 excellent tack, rubber block copolymer Velcro in place to safeguard against scratches (yawn), the roof design began.
It’s fixed at the front with fiberglass rods through a channel (like pitching modern tents) and anchored in the 4 corners with Velcro straps. Anti-flapping is taken care of by the Velcro added to the chassis (as explained above).
The result is a good fit in a matching dark grey waterproof heavy cotton material.
Good Points
- Takes 3 minutes to put on. Takes 1 minutes to take off. Folds up to store easily behind a seat or in your custom sandwich holder (viewtopic.php?f=54&t=16987).
- Shade!
- Keeps most rain off your face. Of course, there is seepage through the top of the windscreen, but 90% is sent over your head when moving and onto your arm when stationary.
- Stops passengers on the top deck of busses and coaches looking down at your bald spot at the traffic lights.
- The air freshener seems much more effective now. Love that pine fresh smell!
- Getting in and out of the car is even more fun. You have to master the ‘underhand grab and swivel’ technique. Kills a whole new set of muscles that you didn’t know you had.
- I think the roof makes it hotter in the cabin given a lot of heat comes up from the footwell. It may be that that heat isn’t escaping through the ‘roof’ when stuck in traffic. Or it may be that I was tired and felt the heat more than usual. Anyway – shade!
May look later in the year at extending the covering to the sides for the real nasty stuff in winter, but there are a couple of other projects that need finishing first.
Happy Nomading!
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