430 Soft top won't close properly

holy crap. i feel your pain. i own a coupe, so can't help but am sure others will chime in....

 

The good news is that the part is easily repaired. It's fiberglass so any decent shop, or a careful diy, should be able to reset the hook in the capote cover and bend it back into the right shape.

The bad news is why it happened. You'll have to figure that out or it will happen again.

I feel your pain.

For anyone reading this with a 360/430 Spider, it's always a good idea to keep an eye on the top when it's moving as parts can be ground into expensive dust very quickly when things go haywire.

 

And i throught a Mondial roof was a pain

 

Do a search in this forum on "Capote Flaps" and "Elastics". You will most likely find your answer. BTW: 360 and 430 tops are identical/interchangeable. So are floor mats BTW.

 

Your roof canvas is not folding correctly on top of itself. I'll bet the fabric is bunching up, keeping the front edge of the roof above the fold line. Roof elastics are most likely to blame.

 

Ouch. I'ts always worth keeping an eye on the hood operation so that you can lift off of the button in case of an issue.

The hood cover may be repaired. That spot is a little bit tricky because the load is concentrated in such a small area. As part of the repair I recommend that the metal retaining plate/spreader plate is re-made to cover a larger area within the hood cover.

tbakowsky has called this correctly IMO. You'll probably find some witness marks on the hood seam where that bent guide pin has been chaffing over time.

 

Great advice John.
Which is why I am against installing those One-Touch auto openers that bypasses the FCar module and allow opening/closing up to 15mph (or something like that.
That's a disaster waiting to happen.

 

I learned very fast to watch my top as it opens and closes. I'll be making my own switch/opener for about $15 bucs for this exact reason