Give it the boot?

[captthundarr]

Got no boot......yet.

 

[will e]

We know some folks that do concourse restorations on tri five convertibles and they never put the tops down. They leave it to the buyer to decide whether they want to wrinkle the top by putting it down but most never do. I understand why they do this but what is the point of having a convertible if you can't put the top down?

I totally agree. But it only took a few times before a little wear showed up in the usual spots. I guess if you have concourse, especially if you are showing it, then it would matter.

But I am of the mind set 'what is the point if you can't put it down'!

 

[nailpounder]

i have had the boot on for very long time . i do need a new one its shrinking around the edges. what brand and where do you get a good one ?

Nice looking car! What's the rims and tires? Can I see another picture?

the tires are hankook ventus s1 nobil and the rims are torq thrust m chrome x 17"

 

[imusa76]

here are pictures with the Boot, it gives it the finished look.

 

[mpbsr]

I only boot when showing the car and its going to be sitting for a few hours.

 

[imusa76]

as I promised the weather is nice and I recorded how I have the boot setup and how quick it is to put on and take off.

 

[will e]

Great video. I really like the 'cover into the well liner'. I am going to try that. I was just letting it hang in the back. Also I noticed your top went up in 10 or 11 seconds. I will have to time mine.

I had become a bit of a boot snob. I was not willing to drive with the top down unless I had time to put the boot on. But I got over it. It doesn't look as clunky as I thought it did with the top down and bootless. Although I did notice the top vinyl does vibrate at speed, I wonder if this is bad for it.

 

[Austin Vert]

Yeah Iyman,

good video, and tells the story well. But i must press home my point i mentioned before, that i bought a repro boot cover from the States, and the silly thing is really too small for a proper comfortable fit up. It just won't go on, even trying to stretch it as hard as you can. At one stage recently, i was pulling so hard trying to stretch it to fit on, that i started to rip the stitching along one of the seams. The sun helps to a degree, but it's still way too hard to fit up. I stuffed around for about 1/2 hour trying to get it on, and then just gave up. Yet another repro ripoff. I'm sure i would use the boot cover more often, if was that easy to install as yours is in the Vid. Thank you for going to the trouble, and passing on your info.

Yours, looks like a nice comfortable fit and is easy and straight forward to fit up. That said, does anyone know where you can buy a decent quality boot cover that actually fits up with ease?:huh:

Also, i thought i would pop in some good info regards convertible top care, cleaning and maintenance from Robbins tops, one of the best leading brands of vert tops in the world, since another member was talking about leaving the top in the up position, for best results.

http://www.robbinsautotopco.com/cleaning.php

Greg.:shy:

 

[luxstang]

Nice video Iyman

Only thing is.... that went waaayyy too smoothly.

What your video doesn' t show is the part where at the first corner your boot is already too short to even go over it and you have to pull like a madman for a few minutes all the while reciting all the expletives you can think of.

Then when you think you're done with that corner you wonder how the other corner will ever fit.

It will eventually but then you notice it only went on because it detached from the first corner. Use more expletives of choice.

Then when you finally, after what felt like hours, have the frigging thing on you go for a drive and feel real good about your achievement until one of the corners flips up, most likely on a freeway, and starts to flap up and down.

Thats when you make a rough estimate of the costs those anger management classes will cost you if you were to do this on a regular basis and you rip the stupid thing off and toss it in the trunk and leave it there to rot.



Bottom line is, I guess you're lucky yours works so easily. Neither my original one nor my repro one will.

 

[sicndhed]

I need to stop looking at the cars in this thread. It could become $$$$$$$. Some darn nice stuff you guys have got there.

 

[4Vforever]

Great video, but I have to agree with Lux on everything he said in his post. I've had one that I purchased that's been on the car not even 20 times and it now has a massive hole in it on the left corner, as it was way too tight. Then one that came with the car when I purchased it is a real strange thing. One day it's tight to get on, the next time it's loose. So yesterday we had a club event and thought I'd put on the one that came with the car on, as it's in ok condition and doesn't have a massive hole in it. So after pulling it out of storage, go to put it on the car and after the customary cursing and swearing, I finally get it on. So after I get on the road, after about 10 kms (6 miles) hear the flapping of the corner coming off. No problem, a it later more and more comes undone. By the time I get to the servo to get fuel, I'd had enough of the bloody thing, I pull up at the pump, I get out of the car fairly peed off, rip the cover off cursing at it, open the trunk and just threw the whole lot of it in there and slam the trunk shut. Then I notice a few people looking at me and probably thinking, this guys crazy if this is what he does to his car, lol. After fuelling the car and calming down, got the usual compliments and one guy says to me about the incident with the cover, I just told him if he's ever owned one and had the joy of wrestling one on , only for that to happen, then you'd get upset with it too. We both just laughed.

 

[imusa76]

This cover is about 10 yrs old, I got it from OMS, it was a very tight fit for the first year or so, and it would pop off on its own, I think its stretched out that's why it a good fit right now.

As Mike pointed out, the first corner is a hard pull, to get it over the chrome molding, then once that's on

it all easy.

 

[OLE PONY]

Great video. I'll have to try leaving it snapped on and storing in the well liner area.

One of my favorite sounds is the whirring of the power top going down. Makes me anxious to hit the road with the top down.

My reproduction boot has stretch marks too. I wonder if there is an adjustment to let the top frame go down another quarter inch or so to give the boot a little more clearance?

 

[imusa76]

Mike, another quarter of an inch would help a lot!!

the other reason I keep it snapped in all of the time, I have the reopop quarter interior panels and they are not as thick as the original, so I'm afraid the snaps will get ripped out of the panel by taking them off every time, so this was the solution I came up with, and it helped speed up the installation at the same time.

 

[will e]

Lux you crack me up.

My repo boot also was very hard to get on at first. I did get a small tear in it at one of the seams trying to pull it into place. But after using it a lot it now goes on about as smooth as the video. All though lately it has been giving me fits.

At one point my car setup was converted to snaps. The holes are still in the molding. Snapping it on was fast and easy. I had a replacement boot made local pretty cheap but it didn't have the same smooth look that ours do.

I kind of wondered about using the snaps again and having the upholstery shop hide the snap tops. I wonder how that would look.

But for now I will keep using my repo...

 

[mrmach1]

I don't have a Vert but if I did I would use the Boot. My Dad had a 67 Vert and I always thought it looked so much nicer with the Boot on, I remember even the factory Boot was hard to fit on but we did it and it was worth the extra effort. He stored his car in a nice clean dry garage with the top down and kept the boot on and I think that helped to keep it fitting good.

 

[Austin Vert]

BTW - A bit of trivia.

In Australia, we call the trunk, the boot. Example - Do you keep a spare wheel in your boot? Crazy, no?

Greg.

 

[luxstang]

Mike, another quarter of an inch would help a lot!!

Haven't we all heard that before....

Another thing is that I use my car a lot and I often put the top up or down depending on the kind of driving I have to do. Like keep it down but put it up to go on a freeway then put it back down 10 minutes later after I get off the freeway.

So the boot thing would be too cumbersome for me.

But I like the look of it in place.