When I went to get a new hood fitted I was provided with a lesson from Charlie the trim
shop foreman especially for hoods on 4 seaters.

  1.Take off the rear sidescreen. Stretching the hood over the sidesceen as you put it up can
     cause the hood to split (now he tells me)
  2.Then erect the frame.
  3.Put the hood over the frame and do up the twist fasteners on the back
  4.Now connect the "lift the dot" nearest the windscreen centre
  5.Then the second one in from the edge
  6.Do all the others on that side
  7.Repeat 4-6 on the other side
  8.Finally install the rear sidescreens making sure they are inside the flap provided and do up  the poppers.
  9.Climb inside and close the door, make sure the sidescreen is under the flap or they bend out at speed.
 10.Finally; since the whole process takes several minutes and the weather has been making like a  monsoon all that time even though Michael Fish swore that it would be a dry day, dry yourself off with the towel you keep for the purpose (Charlie didn't include that one).

If you don't want the hood to split you have 2 possible courses of action:

  1.Don't use it
  2.Never take it off!!

Finally warm hoods erect far more easily. Most of the damage to my old one, including the final catastrophe, occurred in winter when forced to use pliers to enhance the available grip. Some owners have even split the windscreen erecting a tight hood. If travelling on your own keep the hood in the passenger footwell, there is enough heat to make it reasonably easy where there is a heater, and enough from the engine where there is no heater to make it at least easier to erect (Making the wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend travel in the back to make room for the hood is not usually well received). If at home bring the hood inside and put it in the airing cupboard for a couple of hours before fitting.