Miata Mailing List: January 1995, Message #35
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   From: bkd@usl.edu (Brian K. Dore')
Subject: $150 convertable top replacement
   Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 09:59:23 -0500


Yeah thats right, I replaced my convertable top over the holidays with a
cheap J.C. Whitney replacement part.  I won't go into the details here about
the how or why of it, but here is a brief synopsis.  The top is fairly heavy
duty, and has a 60 month warranty.  It came with absolutely no instructions,
hints, or information of any kind.  It isn't pretty.  The surface is smooth
rather than pebbled like the factory top and it has a glossy sheen to it.
It looks very much like something the bottom of a rubber raft might be made
out of.  It isn't really ugly either, just different from stock.    

The install went fairly well, but it was a lot of work.  The fit isn't
perfect, but it could be my instalation.  There were a couple of minor
differences between the factory top and the new top.  The fabric on either
side of the rear window has a slight wrinkle in it and when putting up the
top, you have to reach up and pull the top down about an inch in order to
get it to latch properly.  I expect that the top material may
shrink or stretch with use and these imperfections may get better or worse
in a month or so.  I didn't have time to play with the adjustments much, so
that might make a big difference also.  The biggest problem was that the
holes for rivets and securing the new
top fabric to the car were marked, but not punched in the new top.  I used a
scratch awl to punch out the holes, but in retrospect, if I had used a real
punch, the job would have been a lot easier.  The tools needed were minimal,
a drill to remove the old rivets, a couple of screwdrivers, a pair of
pliers, a metric socket set (just 10 & 12 mm sockets I believe) and a pop
rivet gun.  A strip of double sided adhesive tape and a bunch of aluminium
rivets and washers were the only materials needed other than the top fabric.
It took me about 12 hours over two days to do it.  I could probably do it in
half the time now that I know what I'm doing.  I definitely will remove the
seats from the car when I replace another one.

Brian 

  





  

Brian K. Dore'                                              
Systems Analyst
University of Southwestern Louisiana Computing Center