Mondial t Tonneau cover - photos

Hi John. Thanks for posting the pictures!

I just bought one of these. (for "cheap" on eBay) How are the straps secured? In other words the straps end with little strips of leather. How are those strips gripping the wheel wells, the doors, and the back of the top cover, or is that the engine cover that they grip?

 

FWIW, the OEM cover can rub against the sides of the car and inevitably scratch it up.

I use the Ricambi Spider Top. It weatherproof in most conditions, lightweight, easy to use, and brilliantly designed.

http://www.ricambiamerica.com/product_info.php?cPath=100048&products_id=284210

 

and my name was invoked: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221800&highlight=mondial+toneau

I 'finished' what I needed in the way of a 'toneau' top. It serves my purpose and especially for the price.

Brad Goldstone [Very nice Ferrarista who told me, which is good enough to stop my research], that the OEM top was for shipping and storage and/or such. The top came with each Mondial from the factory with one. Brad had a pile of them at Ferrari of San Francisco [Brad sold me my Mondial T---thanks Brad ] and just tossed me one as they were wanting to get rid of them: I kept is as I do the luggage---documentation, and that's all. The OEM serves no real purpose as a daily practical cover and looks simple silly. It is only good to mimic old time shipping covers or get it on the grass for the concours judging.

BUT Brian Keagan [and he know stuff ] http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138338118&postcount=14 mentions it as a real cover when the top is down: I like mine better for the access, total coverage of nooks and crannies, and allowing the engine to cool better when parked.


my two

rik

 

I have a Spider Top. It is a nice piece, but is too flimsy for desert sun. UV goes right through it. I want to have a custom, heavier duty, Spider Top made, but in the meantime I bought the tonneau cover. I was more curious than anything - if I had bothered to look for a picture before I bought it, I probably wouldn't have bought it. Anyway, now that I have it, I am curious how it attaches. My car is laid up in the shop, so I don't have it handy for experimentation.

My car is a veteran driver, so scratches are no big deal, but thanks for the heads up!

 

Rik, who is the leather lady you talk about in your cover thread?

That's a nice design by the way, although not quite the way I would have done it.

Just for the record, I thought that a "tonneau cover" was a cover that one used to cover the interior when the top is down, in other words, went *inside* the doors and windshield, and could be used while driving. That's what I thought I was buying. Oh well.

 

She has lately ran off to S. America with a new beau ... good for her. She gave her enterprise to her sons. That business is in Santa Rosa, CA.

You can probably find anyone locally with a sewing machine that can stitch heavy material and get the same results. I'd expect one to pay between $150-$250. It could be modified a bit and I might be inclined to using snaps and not the plastic bits. Originally I wanted to use the top T like clips, but let it go. Keeps leaves, sun and heavy moisture out, while the engine is allowed to cool. Covers the mirrors, wipers and every exposed piece that can get UV damage.

That's ok, I only hear compliments, the rest of your sentence was 'blah blah something'.

Correct IMO, which is why you always see me single-quote the word I don't believe it to be a true tonneau but rather a car cover even with the zippered part. My cover would never make it past the first LEO if I were driving.

 

I was asking about the leather lady because I have some other leather upholstery issues. Do you think the sons are any good?

As for the design of your cover, I have gotten spoiled in regards to ease of installation by my spyder top. So, I would have made it more like the spyder top only slightly heavier cloth. I am not nearly as sensitive as you are to wear and tear on my well-used old jalopy vs. your mint edition iteration.

As for the use of the word, "tonneau", I was not criticizing your use of the word, but Ferrari's. The "shipping cover" is listed as a "tonneau" cover in the parts catalog. That's why I got interested in buying one, when, had I known better, I would have realized that it's no tonneau cover, and that they were giving them away at FSF.

 

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to use that one!!!!

 

No problems here mate. I believe my install is very easy taking only, truly, about five min. max to put on. Open front hood, put on left, then right mirror covers, close front hood, pull back each corner rear to tail flaps and into work.

Ferrari's use of the word tonneau IMO is wrong as most feel a tonneau can be used while driving. I'm thinking of the Mondial 500's cover, and that is a 'tonneau', albeit metal one, that makes sense.

The fact that FSF was a factory dealership, probably had them keeping them for some unknown reason, where most dealerships either tried to make a quick buck re-selling them, or just threw them in the package....don't know. I was just lucky in getting one for free as the several license plate covers they gave me. I would honestly have obtained one on ebay also believing as you, or just for 'anther Mondial item' I just couldn't live without.

I have several scale models from diff. mfgrs on a Mondial T none of which do it justice and not to mention the Press Release books and that oversized book where a Mondial T is pictured about 1/4 size in a foldout. That's when I have more money than brains, er, actually, space to display all this cr@p. All that stuff just sits on some shelf gathering skin flakes.

IF I ever sell the beauty, I'll be forced to give the luggage 'tonneau' folders etc. etc. over to the new owner as decency would dictate.

Of all the registered copyrights I own, that one is totally available

 

since this thread started with the Tonneau in mind. How about others posting a design of their own. Who knows. Might strike up something.

BTW: I claim no copyright to anything posted so feel free to hack or sell or whatever as desired.

r

 

I keep having this vision of me driving down the road with a tonneau cover over the passenger side of the interior at about the height of the bottom of the windshield. I stop the car, get out, lift a piece of cloth or leather over the top of the driver seat, attach it at the base of the windshield to cover the driver's side of the dash including the instrument panel, and zip up the zipper that runs down the centerline of the interior between the driver's side and the passenger's side of the tonneau. In about 30 seconds, the entire interior including the dashboard is protected from prying eyes and the sun's rays.

 

I like it. Now how to design.
Take one:
Perhaps, the pasenger's side can have a small 'tang' that goes into the defrost vent [safely] keeping the side a bit stiff [will probably need some underside battens like on a sailboat]. The 'tang' portion is about middle of the entire front piece. When tang is taken out, the material under will unfold the leading edge, top part. So, when tang is removed from vent, the entire piece unfolds and goes over the windshield rather than on dash.

The zippered portion dividing driver from passenger will be a bit curved to allow shifting. Is the back seat covered? or open? Portion belonging to cover the driver, tucks under the pasenger side, but when zipped allows for covering of windshield making entire front a sort of one piece.

Looks like a complex object, but would be fun to prototype.

 

>> Is the back seat covered?

Yes.

>> covering of windshield

No. The windshield is not covered. The t-cover is attached on the inside of the windshield <b>at the base</b>. The dashboard is covered, the windshield is not. The t-cover is level across the interior, but with, perhaps, form-fitting bumps to clear the tops of the front seats.

While you are driving, the driver's side is draped over the top of the back seat and then down behind the front seat. The passenger side goes all the way forward to the base of the windshield.

 

That, was better stated than my drawn out description: I have been guilty of over stating a simple idea.

on that note, what I meant then, was for a sort of 'tang' or such that hold the passenger's side in the defrost vent hole. That 'tang' [lack of a better term...I can't post pics so you'll have to imagine here] would be fastened under the leading edge of the passenger's side and inserted into that defrost hole. I'm thinking with some mfgr work it would be benign enough to not damage the hole during even spirited driving and yet 'un-plug' to allow the folded under material to be put overtop the windshield.

Another tie down method might be to attach under the passenger's side a seat-belt piect that keeps it steady.


just brain storming, and in my case......more of a squall.

 

I hear you Rik. I do the same thing as far as making the simple complex.

I don't want to cover the windshield. When I park the car, I just want to be able to cover the dash and interior as simply and quickly as possible. I drive my car as a daily driver, and so need to be able to get in and out without a lot of fuss. That's why I just want to leave the passenger side attached to the base of the windshield. Then all I have to do is flip over the driver side of the t-cover and zip it up.

Lately what I've been doing is leaving the convertible top cover off. When I park the car, I just flip the top up into place, and a lot of times, don't even fasten it. (BTW, if you adjust your top properly, you can both flip and fasten the top from the driver's seat.) The tonneau cover I envision would allow me to leave the top down and covered, and would do a better job of protecting the dash from UV. It would also do a better job of securing the interior contents compared to the car with the top up but unfastened and all the windows down.

I just had an idea: I think that the best implementation of what I am thinking would be to make it as part of the convertible top cover. That way the rear of it would be attached using the convertible top cover's Tenax fasteners.

 

Tenax was my original idea also, but wanted the leather top-cover to always be in place.

In that case:
IF one leaves the top-cover off, then Tenax spikes can be used easily. Might even have something that inserts in the front area but NOT permanently. How, I don't know.

 

>> inserts in the front area

That's where your idea of tabs that slot into the defroster vent could come into play.

>> leave the top-cover off
The design that I am considering would *replace* the top cover. In other words the top would now be covered and protected by the tonneau cover, instead of a separate top-cover.

 

Ok, got the rear part. It would come off anyway when the top is put up.

 

When I put my top up, usually all I do is unfasten the top-cover fasteners on the outside of the body, along with the two fasteners on the front of the top bow wells, and then fold the top-cover over the rear-seat back cushions, thus leaving it dangling from the two remaining fasteners on the rear shelf.

The top/tonneau-cover would work the same way. Heck, even with the top up, you could still stop the car, pull the interior sections forward, fasten them to the base of the windshield, and zip them together. That would give better UV protection for your dash than any of the standard alternatives like those screens that you unfold and stick in the windshield. On top of that I would feel better about not locking the doors, which I hate to do with the top up. All it takes is one desperate junky with a box cutter to ruin my convertible top. But leaving the doors unlocked is like inviting some jerk to rifle my interior contents, also an unpleasant prospect. But with a top/tonneau-cover in place, the doors are unlocked, but the interior is covered - probably the best compromise, short of buying a Ferrari California with its metal convertible top . Yes, the top-cover part would sort of be slopping around on top of the back part of the fastened tonneau cover, but so what?