Club 80-90 Forums

Hey all, hope someone has experienced something like this before.
Just had a new canvas fitted to the Devon roof and whilst this was happening the brackets were replaced. Now that it is all back on, the front of the roof no longer seals to the bodywork and the fastners can't clip down. This is mainly at the front as the back seems ok.
Any ideas?

Hi,
That doesn't sound good. I am thinking of getting a new canvas for my Devon roof. I would be SO disappointed if that happens. Are the brackets you mention the side hinges? Maybe the roof hasn't been fitted back on 'square' if the hinges aren't properly fitted or maybe the canvas isn't folding up neatly at the front, though that seems unlikely. I would be inclined to speak to whoever fitted it to check it out. Hope it is easily sorted.
If you have any recommendations about who to use or not use I would be interested.

Good luck.

Julia

Which canvas have you had fitted?
I got mine from proud to pop and I can only assume they have never seen a Devon roof before .
I have to manually fold the pleats into the canvas as I close the roof so that it will close.
Post up some pictures so we can see what's happening.

Take it back to the person who fitted it and get them to adjust it so it closes.

I had a problem with my roof not fitting down at the front properly when the rivets on the front bracket sheared and it was no longer attached to the roof so I would say check the hinges, or whoever done the canvas may have left something up on the top bed causing the roof not to close properly?

Tony

The roof is from pop top parts, it looks like it has been refitted properly, at least it lines up just as it did. The brackets that were made did not replace the hinges, just the supports on the back of the fibreglass. It really does seem like the new material is thicker or maybe just more resistant to folding. I will see what I van do about pictures but it is battering down at the minute so it may be a while before I can take any.
Thanks for the replies.

MGP wrote:Which canvas have you had fitted?
I got mine from proud to pop and I can only assume they have never seen a Devon roof before .
I have to manually fold the pleats into the canvas as I close the roof so that it will close.
Post up some pictures so we can see what's happening.

Mine is the original canvas and some days does this!

JonW wrote:Hey all, hope someone has experienced something like this before.
Just had a new canvas fitted to the Devon roof and whilst this was happening the brackets were replaced. Now that it is all back on, the front of the roof no longer seals to the bodywork and the fastners can't clip down. This is mainly at the front as the back seems ok.
Any ideas?

As MGP touched on; sometimes the pleats as the roof closes folds the wrong way, this prevents the roof closing as flat as it may be should. Pull it closed slowly and check how the material is folding. Has the roof ever closed correctly with the new canvas. Have you double checked for any loose objects interfering with it?

Thanks Smosh, I am going to spend a while in there making sure everything is lining up and closing as it should. I will update what I find.

Hi,
We have a Devon (1982) with 4 gas struts on the roof, after I took the canvas off (I did not move the hinges) ours I struggled to get the horizontal struts back on because of the pre-load needed, so I shut the roof just on the two vertical struts; the roof would not seat down properly as the roof was sitting one side slightly due to the horizontal struts not pushing it across.
As soon as I got the second lot of struts on all was OK again.
Just a thought.

That is a point actually. They are new struts as the old ones had no compression at all. Tomorrow will be spent tweaking and swearing.

Quick update. The problem was with the new canvas not folding properly when the roof came down. I went out and pleated it as best I could with a pole. The roof now sits much better, not perfect, but I am certain this will come with use and the canvas settles into a proper folding pattern. Hope that all made sense!

Yea, makes sense. Hopefully will settle down!

dont the devon canvasses fix to the poles so they have to concertina
mm

They do originally but not on the replacements. I regret buying mine now I wish I had made my own , still they was nice enough to give me 90mm additional material on mine just a shame there is no where to put it.

metalmick8y wrote:dont the devon canvasses fix to the poles so they have to concertina
mm

yes but the material between the poles needs to fold, sometimes they fold out instead of in.