A Tonneau Cover for Your Late Spitfire? (Triumph Spitfire Options/Accessories) (Ep17.May24)

A Tonneau Cover for Your Late Spitfire? (Triumph Spitfire Options/Accessories)

Small Triumph Sports Library & Archives, Episode 17 (May 2024)

I recently purchased a NOS factory tonneau cover for my 1980 Triumph Spitfire 1500, the first tonneau cover I’ve owned (one did not come with my car when it came into my possession) Hence, after well over thirty years with my car, I’ve had my first experiences with this accessory. This episode provides a little background/history and discusses my initial impressions of the new-to-me cover (for whatever they’re worth, as experiences vary, obviously).

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***Please help me to ensure the accuracy of information on my channel. Please reach out when you detect errors or possible errors. I make corrections as needed in video descriptions, in comments, and in videos.
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Initial notes/corrections, pedantic nonsense, and self-mockery:

I’ve been really congested lately (perhaps the season finally got me), but it was beyond time to work on a video; I’m sorry about the somewhat nasally voice.

00:20 To be 100% clear, I don’t mean that people in online Triumph communities were directly telling me that I bought a crappy fuel pump; I simply mean that I began to see general reports about this particular item.

1:32 I’m very thankful for my decision to use that drip tray. Indeed, I recommend drip trays in general because in such cases they do a lot more than just keep your Triumph from marking its spot in the usual ways.

4:08 I don’t simply mean car events, etc. The car was my daily driver from June 1991 until August 1998.

5:40 My understanding is that it was a factory option (“special order”), in black or white, in the earlier years. See Thomason 25, 36, 52. For the early Mk4, the tonneau cover was still special order, then it became standard (for cars with convertible tops, at least) in 1974 (Thomason 82).

8:16 The top fabric may be “waterproof,” but tops are not typically “watertight”…

10:11 I should note that my car had white plastic snap studs riveted on the doors for the tonneau cover…although, again, I think that door snap studs would be standard if tonneau covers essentially were standard issue for any 1974 or later car supplied with a convertible top.

13:00 For background information, please see the following: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Coventr...
https://www.bmh-ltd.com/our-brands/co...

13:09 Presumably as demand for side screens fell off a cliff.

15:01 Of course, it’s possible that fit would have been better if my tonneau cover were custom-fitted.

16:02 Actually, the “beige” color offered by most vendors looks less than ideal to me…but that’s mostly going on catalogue images and not material samples…

19:47 I almost immediately recognized the month as "OCT," although as I was making the video it looks like it could very well be "SEP." I can't say for sure.

24:48 I suppose someone might tell me that, although tonneau covers were race bred (and plenty of Spitfire racecars in the 1960s sported them), in the latter days of the classic British sports car the available tonneau covers were really only intended to be used at “around town” speeds and to cover the car when parked. From what I’ve seen, Triumph’s instructions regarding its tonneau covers were vague and focused mainly on the protection of the interior.

27:46 One major concern with the tonneau flopping around a bit is the chaffing of interior components. I’m also not completely confident in the strength of the brackets at the defroster vents for the front attachment points. Logic suggests that they should have been designed to take at least a mild beating, but experience tells me I should worry a bit.


Works Cited

Thomason, John. _Triumph Spitfire and GT6: A Guide to Originality_. Crowood Press, 1995.