I have a full tonneau for my 1990 MX-5 ... but I've never put it on in the two years I've had the car. The main reason for not doing so, apart from the report from the previous owner that it's a trial to put on, is that it means the door windows have to be down. This means that, at least on the passenger side, you have to travel along with the window down; now while I generally prefer to travel top down, it's always with the side windows up unless it's just around town, when I don't want the hassle of fitting the tonneau in the first place. I also have an alarm with window closure, so I would also have to remember to hit the "disable window closure" switch.To fit the tonneau on also means that the seats have to be moved fully forward and fully reclined since with the genuine Mazda article there are no housings in the tonneau for the backs of the seats.

You might say "why not leave the tonneau fitted while it's in the garage?" The reason is that I left the top down for two weeks once and the rear window was "crinkly" for weeks afterwards although it fully recovered in the long term. I very rarely even put the hood cover on since the hood doesn't look bad when down and doesn't flap about much anyway, and raising the hood without the cover is so much easier if rain starts to fall in earnest...

Unfortunately, although the tonneau itself would be readily saleable should someone want it and it remains in excellent condition, there are various fittings across the dash and on the doors and mirrors to locate the tonneau onto, so it's not really practical to sell unless someone could source these fittings separately. (1/00)

Tonneaux are very useful on sportscars with no hoods or hoods that are a pain to erect (ooh er..) Otherwise they have no protection for the interior against rain, theft, bird-doos etc. when parked. My old Frogeye had a hood that came off completely together with with its folding metal 'sticks'. It then had to be stowed in a small dark cave behind the seats (no pansy boot lids on a true Brit sportscar!). As this was an enormous hassle, my hood came off in the spring and the tonneau stayed on. If it rained when driving the passenger side of the cover kept everything dry - except for me :-(

However there's really no need for one on a Five as the hood goes up and down so easily. Also most Tonneaux have to be stretched and clipped down with loads of fasteners which can murder your nails, dearie ;-)

I bet if you bought one you'd use it about twice! (1/00)

I've probably invented a whole lot of new words here, so try to keep up ;-)

I used the hood cover today for the first time this year. It was nice to leave the car in the car park at work with the hood cover in place. It's a psychological thing: I'm showing (myself) that I'm confident that it will still be sunny when I go home. (It was). I only put the cover in place after I got to work so the problem, when it came, wasn't noticed on the way to work.

One of the capstan catches has stopped gripping the spigot and so pops off when the car goes over 30 mph or so (which isn't long after the journey starts). It then bounces off the paintwork behind the door. I brought it into the house and had a look but it looks beyond repair, simply because it's a kind of internal problem. In the meantime, I've swapped it for an inside one which isn't as prone to wind disturbance, but it's going to have to be replaced. Any ideas where I can get a new one? I thought of Jay, but I'm not sure he would want to break up a perfectly good hood cover to give me one capstan catch. Are they available new from anywhere? (4/00)

They're called Tenax fasteners.

A good source of all things "Trimming" (rubber sections, fasteners of all sorts, zips, carpets, even cow hides) is:
Creech Coachtrimming Centre
45 Anerley Rd
Crystal Palace
London
SE19 2AS

0181 659 4135 (in old money - what is the new number?)
They do mail order - never used them - just got a catalogue - (old)! (4/00)