Upgrades 21. Half Hood

Over the winter I really enjoyed getting the car out when the roads were dry enough, however sometimes the temperatures were still pretty cold. With the heated seats and heater on, and a neck warmer it was mostly OK, however sometimes having the full hood on made it that bit more cosy and pleasurable.

I was going to try and use the full hood all the time, but it is a bit of a faff getting it on and off, and I really don't like that you have to unclip the boot cover to do this as it does make it look a bit of a mess.

So I decided that I would go the route of the half hood. At the time of writing there were only 3 options that I could see available

• Official Caterham half hood (apparently the same as the ones that used to be manufactured by Oxted/Thundersport), this only comes in vinyl now.
• Soft bits for sevens half hood, this can be in vinyl, mohair or fabric
• Second hand

After much deliberation, I decided that the vinyl official Caterham one was for me. Not only does the vinyl match the doors and all the other vinyl I have, but it is also the plainest (no logo other than a small "Caterham" tab on the side). I also preferred the strap setup much more than the SBFS one. The only problem is that it is that little bit more expensive as it is direct from Caterham.

The SBFS has 6 straps at the back, and requires you to alter the pop rivets on the boot cover so you have a popper stud base showing at all times, for me I didn't like this popper base showing, and also the 6 straps looks a bit of a mess, compared to the 4 straps that follow the roll bar of the official one.

when choosing a half hood you have to make sure you choose the right one for your car size (S3 or SV) and also the roll bar you have (so for me it was the SV Trackday roll bar one)

With the above in mind I opted for the Half Hood SV Fia Roll Bar version.

Fitting was very simple, however I already knew that there may be an issue with the full hood sticks getting in the way when attaching the side straps to the location of the roll bar. So I decided to buy some M8 x 20mm Socket Flanged Button Screws which replaced the hex bolt that is normally used. I also had to remove both washers from the setup to allow the hood straps to fit under the hood sticks properly.

I initially tried it with a washer but the bolt still fouled on the hood sticks. In the end I used a tiny bit of Loctite just to be sure that these bolts wouldn't fall loose.

Here is the look with it on: