7-up

Hi,
Having removed the cars original roof and had it professionally repaired, i'm keen to get some advice and get this back on the car. I've replaced soft-tops before.
On this car it seems the design uses various small elasticated straps/cords etc to keep the roof lining in position / assist it when the roof folds. These small attachments were rotten missing. I need to put in new but where were they originally??
Whereas i can find thinga like remnants stitched in place i cannot find where (if still complete) the elastic cords/attachments went to. I'm hoping by looking at a car and the three pictures below , someone can help me make the right repairs (please)


Picture 1 . Offside- At the base of the hood frame, rear of the car's quarterlight window, on each side of the car, is a spring. Its about 10mm diameter and normally clad with a black plastic sleeve. Some cord or elastic must have stretched the spring in use but what ? I'm guessing perhaps a cord ran from the spring to the base of the roof lining at the roof's lower edge - perhaps to the roof lining at base of the hood frame by the rear quarter-light )??

Picture 2
This shows the roof lining (I taped in position - see tape)) at the base of the roof behind the rear quarter-light (off side). Here the roof lining has a fabric pocket at its lower corner. I assume i should secure the lining by placing the black boomerang plastic bit, on hood frame, inside the fabric pocket.
As mentioned above , is there any elastic cord in this area to keep hood lining in place??

Picture 3
This shows remains of small elastic strap at top rear corner of hood frame (off side) I want to know where the other end of this went. I'm guessing it may have attached to roof lining near the top of the rear window??.
.
Hope its interesting !!

Rusty Spokes

The big straps are still available. Part number 8G0898241A and pricey at about $370 for the kit. The smaller side straps are a DIY with elastic from a camping/boating or clothing/sewing store.

You might find the big straps cheaper on ebay.de..shop around.

There should be some wires with springs on each side threaded though the convertible top . part number 8G0871539.

7-up

Thanks for the answers and advice. I just need a bit more info ,
My main problem is I can see the ends of remnants of an elastic straps or a spring - still attached at one end...... but I don't know what the other end attached to ! !.

With reference to my pictures
1) a spring is in the base of the hood frame but what was on its end pointing towards the front of the car??

2) It looks like the lower corner of the hood lining, rear of the quarterlight window, has a pocket which means you can 'hook' it on the black plastic boomerang, to stay in position. However I fancy the lining also used an elastic cord here to retain it in position- perhaps a cord running to the spring mentioned above. I'd like to know if i'm right about this

3) hanging down vertically is the remains of a small elastic strap, but where did the other end attach to??

Turning to your advice,
i have already purchased materials to replace big straps' elastic - its easy to work out where these go
There are wires with springs on each side threaded though the convertible top - i've salvaged these in good condition to use again - I can see exactly where they go
The smaller straps i will make up myself

My problem is, as per picture 3 I cannot say where some smaller straps attach to at each end, and as per picture 1., I don't know what this spring is to be attached to at the front end.


Any more help would be great to have

Rusty Spokes

https://www.audi-cabrio-club.info/ac...104&artlang=de

Take a look at this link and see if it is helpful? Lots of pictures. I use Chrome which will do a pretty decent job of translating the page to English from German. Use your imagination on some of the vocabulary. When Chrome translates German you get words that says "sky" it really means "headliner"..etc.

7-up

thanks for the extra , Sadly i'm not sure i'm getting there.
I've translated german in this website but the car in the pictures looks to be a manual roof without a roof liner. My car is powered roof with liner.

Without a doubt the small rotted elastic straps and cords i've found are to guide/hold the roof lining- so i'm stuck.

If some one sees this and has an Audi b4 convertible in Surrey or Hampshire or Berkshire i'd gladly exchange a bottle of if wine if I could visit just take a look at theirs. I've seen a local lady driving a neat and late B4 cabriolet and i think i know roughly which road she goes to most week days at 9am. Perhaps i can look her up..... but without telling the wife!!

Please be assured the info you have given me is already helping me get the car ready

polarica

Did you ever find out where the spring in picture 1 goes? I have the same car, and there are still a (nonelastic) string attached to both springs. However, these strings are not attached to anything in the other end. I can clearly see that they have been attached to the lower front edge corner of the lining, where there is some (plastic/steel?) reinforcement sewn into the corner. The strings should be attached roughly to the middle of this reinforcement (you might see some trace of how the strings were sewn into the fabric). See attached picture, the strings have once been attached where the arrown points, each string is about 27 cm long.



I think the strings shall help the lining corner to smoothly go back into the softtop-garage, as now I often need to stop folding down the top, and poke the corners a bit back, otherwise they are stuck in between when the garage top goes down.

However, I cannot for my life understand how these strings shall be routed between all the linkage and tubes, as any variant I try fail in one way or another. Any info from your side (if you have it) would be appreciated...

polarica

Sometimes it's worth telling someone else about your problem, as then you discover new things. In the picture I posted previously, I suddenly spotted a small eyelet on the side of the cab top. It seems logical that the string goes from the spring, through the eyelet, and then fasten to the lower front corner of the inner lining. I put a new white string there now just to experiment a bit, and I'm pretty certain this is the way it's supposed to work (although I only fastened the string to the lining temporarily for now)..


However, when trying to fold the top up or down with this string attached, the fabric of the lining gets stuck into various parts of the linkage, so worsk even worse than before. So I kind of understand why both of these strings have been torn away over time. Need to do some more trials, and see if I can find a good solution. By the way, the old strings measure 28.5 cm long.