sangtastic

Hello fellow ZR owners,

I was literally laughing out loud when Brown's Fairfax Nissan (VA) quoted me $7300 (Parts & labor) for my detached metal claw on my 2nd bow (little sheet of metal on top of the actual bow to hold the inside vinyl). I have attached the pic with red arrows to indicate which part I am talking about.

Just like many of us who mentioned the top problems before, I might have to replace the part out of my pocket since my warrenty expired. So here are my questions:

1) If I decide to purchase brand new cloth top from topsonline.com, do they provide you with metal bows or just the cloth?

2) Could I purchase the 2nd bow only? Would it cost more to do this?

Another thing I thought about is simply buying some plastic zip lines from home depot or Lowes and wrap my metal claw and the bow together. my only concern with that method is that it might leave zip line marks on my soft top causing it to rip later on.

Any comments or recommendations greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sang

JoEdaGiGGoLo

iTrader: (1)

1. They only provide the cloth - not the metal bar

2. It might be hard to find the 2nd bow by itself - I'm not sure

3. In my opinion - I don't think you should do the zip tie because it MIGHT tear the cloth there since it will be constant rubbing with nothing to ease the friction of the rubbing cause a tear - if that makes sense.

Good Luck!

kajuraelai

iTrader: (8)

honestly if they told me 7300 for that fix, i'd of laughed... went back to my house with my head down... took a claw hammer to the rest of the top and called the insurance copy on vandalism... not saying you should do it ! but to hell with paying 7300 for a crap design in th first place

qik311

Not to highjack your thread, but same thing happened to mine, I find it real shitty that we cant by just this part. I put this thread up a while ago and still have not found this part yet. If anyone has a suggestion please PM with any info on ordering this part.
https://my350z.com/forum/350z-roadst...t-somehow.html

J D

iTrader: (1)

Try autopartsearch.com. They have 4 jusnk yards with tops on there ranging from $650 to $1000. You may be able to call and get just the bow for cheaper. Search for Nissan->350Z->Rear Body Parts->Roof then pick convertable. Good luck.

jimbosr1

i would try the tie straps and face the sharp end away from the cloth and electrical tape the tie strap.or get a clamp at lowes and tape it.hell it may last a couple of years.

sangtastic

ACTUALLY, that's very similar to what my local auto shop did for me. He took a special type of thread (mixture of cotton, polyester and silk) twisted 4 layers of them together and wrapped the metal claw, my 2nd bow and the cloth that hides the bow by sowing them together very tightly. See attached pics. As you can see I'm in a process of coloring the white threads with my black sharpie! (although I think it's pretty ridiculous that I would need to do this because of Nissan's bad top design).

My total cost went down from $7300 Fairfax Nissan gave me (see, I wasn't kidding. They really gave me a $7300 quote) to $210. Between functionality and looks, (I mean, how many times do you look at your top from inside when you are driving?) I chose functionality.

Top works great. It doesn't get stuck in the middle like it used to do. And I'm pretty happy that I saved $$

NickyD70

Newbie with exact same problem. I know this post is very old. It looks like to do this sewing method one has to use a needle on the flap. Is this a standard technique for this?