Can't believe how quick top deteriorated
 

Guess the previous owners didn't put the top up down much at all, 2 months after buying it I now have 1 large tear and 3 or 4 others starting. Ordered a top from topsonline this past monday for 479 which is what they list them for on Ebay, but their website they list for 629 which I thought odd. I don't use Paypal so I just called and ordered direct from them at the 479 price.
So far I've just found one person local that does tops and the quote I got was 'around 400' but he normally does older classic cars. Not sure if I'll just do that or attempt it myself.

That suxs, I am planning on replacing mine after christmas and I had no idea where to get one, Thanks for the info

There is a tutorial here to help you do it yourself. You may want to check that out.

Yeah, I've downloaded and read through that a few times already, have the tape/rivets bought. It doesn't 'look' that difficult but the way my luck runs....

Well top finally came in, 13 business days to get here which seemed like forever since I didn't get a tracking # . I see what someone mentioned when they said it doesn't have the black rubber type band around the read window in another thread but I'm not sure if that's specific to this brand top or all of them. I'll try and take a couple pictures of stock/replacement for clarity.
Going to try and just do it myself this weekend I guess.

Spent about 6 hours today working on putting new top on, could NOT get it to stretch right when open to put the rear bracket on the bottom, fits good closed *laugh* but that makes it sort of impossible to put the screws in. Going to just leave it closed tonight all day tomorrow and try again in the afternoon.
Pretty good instructions, though a couple parts took me a second to figure out but overall a A+ on it.

Finally getting around to posting back in here. Took a pic of the old rear window and new window plastic trim area so people can see the difference in them, someone had mentioned in some other thread how the top got didn't have the black trim, this one did but has extra seams around it also.
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Still can't get this area to 'seat' look right, don't think the old one looked like this but I can't see anything to pull it tighter. It's the part right where the door closes between the door and the hatch cover.
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Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the top, ended up with 2 plastic pieces that I for the life of me can't recall where they go. Like a screw type deal but instead of threads you just push it in and the 'thread like' part just holds it in. Looked all over and I guess I just missed putting them back and don't see them anywhere in the manual. Oh well.

Interesting, tblunt. Thanks for posting.

You made me wonder so I had to check. This is stock '05 - fyi.

http://www.abousquet.com/postpics/DSCN2399wl.JPG

Cool, thanks for the pic. I looked over the modified pics of roadsters but couldn't find a good pic with a top up. Just need to wash it and put some raggtopp on it so it's nice and black like yours :)

is ti vinyl or stayfast cloth ? do you have any leaking water around the windows ?

interesting........

post far away pics........congrats on doing it yourself..

-J

It's a Ez on auto top vinyl. So far no leaks that Ive seen other than the one that was already 'dripping' which is where the first 2 pieces of rubber meet at the top of the window on the driver side, did it with the old top. The rubber is just worn if you will, nothing serious, just a drop here and there. Of course, it hasn't rained extremely hard yet so time will tell. Oh yeah, the guide mentions he didn't get new straps with his, but mine did come with 2 new ones, hence the part below talking about rivet remnants rolling.

Amusing, I'd read some other post where a guy mentioned he could hear screws rolling around in his top , I imagine his problem is not really a problem, you can here the rivet remnants roll in the metal frame from where you drilled them out. The inner piece (which i don't think you could possibly get out) just rolls around when turning at say 15 miles a hour. Nothing you could hear normally but if you have the radio off you can hear them :)

It does fit rather tight so when I put the top down for the first time in 3 weeks today I had to raise the boot and put it back down for it to lock as the top didnt want to seat all the way down the first time. Probably will correct itself once it's raised lowered alot.

For pictures, not sure how far away you meant, so took these.
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The 2 'grey' squares you can see where the defroster wires attach I haven't had the chance to remove yet. They stuck 2 pieces of foam there to keep them from being damaged and the adhesive was really on there and just haven't gotten around to getting in there with some cleaner to remove it.
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And the piece I had no idea where it went, anyone know where 2 of these dudes go? I know I put the ones back in on the front, doesn't seem to be a issue with them missing and I'd really hate to tear a bunch of crap back apart for nothing.
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Interesting, are you handy? I'm thinking about buying the cloth top from hartz and installing myself.

In all honesty? Not really, I did have help with drilling the rivets out. If you decide to do it yourself make sure you plan a whole day for it. I would go so far as to say take pictures of the inside velcro piece also, that took a few minutes to figure out. Pretty much all you'll need is a drill, some piece of wire like a coat hanger (as mentioned in the guide) , phillips screwdriver, rivet gun and rivets, might want to look for those now just in case, I had to goto 2 different hardware stores because most retail places like Lowes don't carry the size you need. They did have the 1", 5 foot long tape and you will need 2 rolls.
I just printed out the guide, read it several times, then laid it on a flat surface and started from his instructions, read it, looked at the area involved, then did it. Turned page over and did next step.

If someone around had been around 250-300 bucks to install it I'd have let them but the area I live in, the closest place listed on any site was 45 or 90 miles away and probably would've required me to leave the car a couple days.

One place that gave me the most trouble and isn't covered well in the manual, the part I showed above where the door closes and it doesn't seat right, there's a screw up under that , very hard to get to, need a short 2" phillips or a L shaped screwdriver to really get at it, or was for me. The head faces down when closed and the screw itself goes straight up into the top for reference.
Also, some sort of vacuum is handy , as when you're drilling out all the rivets metal shavings will get into the car.
Another spot that takes a couple minutes to figure out and make sure you do it right, is the motor cover on the back under the window. The 2 straps holding it to the top had tore on mine so it wasn't connected, you'll need another person to help there as it's a little tricky to hold the thing and use 2 hands to use the rivet gun (Unless you have access to a air rivet gun).

Other confusing parts, which you'll understand if you do it, but easy to figure out by folding the new top around, are the areas he covers on page 56. Took me a few minutes sitting in the car with top closed looking at it and folding the material around. I think I probably cranked my car 50 times that day moving the top *laugh*. The velcro piece that goes inside the top was also a couple minutes of looking at it going "How the F did this go on".


Overall it scared me to death that I'd screw it up, but it really wasn't that bad, just time consuming. But now not hearing the wind whistling as I drive to work, all worth it.