Roof repair on the Vitara

The Vitara that I bought recently has actually working top (in UK, this is called a "hood"), in contrast to my old Caddy which therefore did not really deserve the name "convertible". But that hood looked quite worn, through 15 years of wear and tear. It withstood that first rain storm that occured just when I bought it and drove home, but at the side there were some openings, and some of the seams would not last very long. So I decided to replace this top with a new vinyl - a white one which would go well with the car. I got it on the internet at Birmingham Motor Parts. It arrived last week, and as I did some basic cleaning of the vehicle, I tried to remove the old hood. No problem was the part above the front seats - the old hood was easily removed, and the new hood could be easily installed. But a big problem occured with the read hood: a set of screws which were used to press a thin metal sheet against the movable frame bar of that hood, were so rusted that I was not able to remove them. They had melted somehow with that bar, so no force could get them out. I had to use a drill to remove them. Of course now the new screws did not find a thread anymore... so they are sitting in their holes a bit loosely... I will have to solve this problem eventually.

But now, the car looks reasonable and presentable again.


New front hood of teh Vitara. 


The old rear hood of the Vitara. 


Completed - both front and read hood are installed.