Patent ID: 8070218

Claim:
A roof locking apparatus for a vehicle installed in a vehicle body for holding a retractable roof in a storage space, said roof locking apparatus for a vehicle comprising: a grip member for gripping a front end of said roof in a middle portion with respect to a vehicle width direction during said roof being retracted into said storage space; a rail disposed in said vehicle body and adapted to allow said grip member to move in the up-down direction between a gripping position where said grip member grips said roof and a holding position provided at a below location relative to said gripping position by a predetermined distance away therefrom where said grip member with said roof gripped thereby is held; a spring disposed between said grip member and a bottom of said rail so as to extend in the up-down direction; a push-pull cable whose one end is attached to said grip member; and a cable drive mechanism to which is attached the other end of said push-pull cable for carrying out a pulling and a pushing-out operations of said push-pull cable, said roof locking apparatus characterized in that: to retract said roof into said storage space, after said grip member having gripped said roof in said gripping position, said push-pull cable is driven by said cable drive mechanism to carry out the pulling operation so that said grip member with said roof gripped thereby is moved by said push-pull cable against an elastic force of said spring along said rail from said gripping position to said holding position, where said grip member with said roof gripped thereby is held, while on the other hand to get said roof retracted in said storage space out of said storage space, said push-pull cable is driven by said cable drive mechanism to carry out the pushing-out operation so that said grip member with said roof gripped thereby is moved by the elastic force of said spring along said rail from said holding position to said gripping position, where said roof is released from the gripped condition by said grip member.