So I'd been putting it off for a while, but the time came for me to man up and install a new convertible top on my car. Um, see for yourself it didn't really turn out like in the plan.
The new top is larger than the old one which I used as a template. From the way it looks on the car I think I need to remove all the staples and adjust things a hair. It's not hard, it's just tedious. Course it doesn't help that it wont stop raining long enough for it to be summer outside :)
The old top probably shrank some over time, they tend to do that.
I replaced the top on my old '61 Bonneville all by myself some years ago and it was probably the most tedious car project I ever took on - eventually I got it done and it looked good, but I had that thing on and off the car a dozen times before I got it right.
I was thinking of doing my miata top by myself....I think that pic just scared me away.
caffecapri wrote: I was thinking of doing my miata top by myself....I think that pic just scared me away.
The top in that pic is NOT a Miata! Miata tops are cake, just be sure to get new cables and a rain rail.
I replaced one on an MGB once. Swore I'd never do it again.
Why was I picturing a sawzall and a picture like this:
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/car/783018558.html
Miata tops are cake.
What kind of car is that jikelly?
Tops aren't hard to install as long as you remember they both shrink and stretch. When they first go up they'll be tight in some spots and loose in others, that'll work its way out, at least with fabric backed vinyl tops. I had a customer with a Cabrio who refused to believe that so we had to put it in the paint booth at ~140 degrees for about 4 hours. Then it fit perfectly.
On the aftermarket Brit tops, they need to be TIGHT! If you don't have to scream and curse when raising and latching it after the first installation, it's not tight enough and it will flap at highway speeds. I learned the hard way to make it too tight, raise the top and leave it up for about a week or two. If you install a new top as tight as it needs to be, then lower it and leave it down it will be a cast iron $*&^%$#@ to raise/latch the next time, which generally is with a cloudburst approaching.
When I put the Miata top on, it was so tight that I couldn't latch it. I put it up as far as it went and sat a 25 pound weight on top of it with a thick, soft rag in between for protection. After a couple hours (it was 95 degrees in the garage) the top had stretched enough for me to latch it.
This is one of those learning curve projects. My first top was for a 69 Mustang..took about a week and it looks great.
60 Austin Healey Bugeye was about as hard as putting on a pair of pants, I took a 91 Mustang to the top guy for a top and watched as he did it perfectly in about 2 hours. I went home determined to do my other 91 Mustang myself and it took me all day!!
Convertible top replacement is more art than science!
Bruce
I got the top installed!!!
Success!!
Still a few wrinkles on the drivers side.
The passenger side looks great however.
Just make sure you always drive in the fast lane and nobody will notice! 
Looks good! I bet those wrinkles will work their way out after a few days in the sun.
Beautiful! Was it difficult?
I wasn't as hard as changing suspension components, but it's not a straight forward unbolt this, bolt in replacement type job. I probably spent about 4 hours fooling with the top. Putting the top over the frame and attaching the rear sail panels (the rear quarters of the top), seeing how I thought it was going to fit once things were tightened, pulling the top off, removing staples and restapling to stretch the material here or there, and putting it back on to see how it looked.
Time consuming, but not really hard.
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