CMP Roof Hatches

[Keith Webb]

The Australian Holden made hatch had a formed rubber seal which fitted over the roof opening, while the Australian Ford used four strips of slightly spongy rubber glued to the inside of the hatch.

[Mike Cecil]

Keith,

I've always found it interesting that the two companies achieved the same end (well, sort of!) using very different methods.

I suspect the GMH Chev seal was the more durable (just like their hatch design - as you pointed out before, the Ford hatch was prone to rusting out from the inside of the two-piece 'sandwich'.)

I also liked the Chev single-piece grab handle, rather than the Ford top-hat section fitted with two standard 'hardware' handles. In all, the Aust Chev hatch, hatch aperture and locking system seemed to be a much better design than the Aust Ford. What do you think?

Mike

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

I also liked the Chev single-piece grab handle, rather than the Ford top-hat section fitted with two standard 'hardware' handles. In all, the Aust Chev hatch, hatch aperture and locking system seemed to be a much better design than the Aust Ford. What do you think?

Mike

Couldn't agree more... the Holden design is superior in almost every respect - even the less fussy catch to stop them bouncing when open, to the proper door style lock rather than a flimsy spring loaded hardware store type catch on the Ford.
The GM-H hatch is also a simpler roof fitting compared with the Canadian type.
It's interesting the Kiwis decided to go a different way and designed a sliding hatch as can be seen in post #17 by Hanno in this thread.

[m606paz]

AEDB Volume 5 Pic
Hip Ring
Hard cover instead Canvas cover?
Prototype?

5-27dg.jpg