Installing a new top on a '79 Spitfire

Hi All: Has anybody installed a new top on a post '75 spitfire? (I understand there is a difference between early and late model tops.) My '79 Spitfire's top is just about shot, and the new one has arrived. No instructions. The only thing I've found on the 'net was installing one on a '63 Spitfire over the course of two weeks in a heated garage. No garage; apartment dweller, and I can't leave it in the parking lot with clamps all over the top to stretch it out for a couple of days in the sun...

I do have access to a semi-secluded driveway, where I could leave the car for a couple of days. So, anyone taken the this project?

I understand the fitment to the header bar above the windshield is critical, as is finding and placing the center line.

Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks, Bob

If you don't have any luck here, try The Totally Triumph Network.

http://www.totallytriumph.net/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=list&forum=DCForumID2&conf=conference

I'm pretty sure somebody over there can give you some tips.

I've done it a few times. It's not particularly hard. Best to give yourself a full Saturday afternoon just so you don't feel stressed or rushed.

Start at the back and work forward. Center as you go.

That metal sheet on the back of the car, put the top onto it, centered, with the edge on the seam. Punch the holes and mount it. Probably a good idea to have contact cement on it just to help spread the stresses, but I've done it without.

Now you do the front, and that's the artistic job. Again, helps greatly to have the frame center marked and the fabric center marked. You're going to pull it tight, but not too tight. And not too lose. Best I've gotten is doing it on a warm day, in the sun. Practice and mark things a few times. I've found having it positioned so that the top won't quite fall down seems to put about the right tension on the fabric. It pulls tight when closed, but doesn't tear itself apart in a year. Contact cement the front bow, place the fabric down.

Reinstall the front gasket. Pretty easy to slip in if you silicone spray it and the track.

You'll likely end up finished so fast you'll be confused. Spitfire top really is pretty durn easy.