Miata Mailing List: March 1995, Message #183
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   From: EMERSON@midd.middlebury.edu
Subject: Replacement top and glass rear window: detailed report
   Date: Sat, 4 Mar 1995 09:26:55 -0500

Given questions over the net about Miata replacement tops and glass
rear windows, I asked Bonnie Lutz (SAMOA Chapter -- Sacramento) for a 
detailed review of her new Robbins top.  Her report:

About the Robbins top...

IT IS FANTASTIC!!

I went into this project a little skeptical, and certainly nervous with
having one of my babies messed with.  Awards Interiors, where  I had it done,
was well researched by Robbins; they have installed Robbins tops on about 150
cars, but only a few Miatas.  Robbins makes soft tops for every kind of car
with a soft top, even vintage autos.  I got a personal tour with Mark 
Robbins.  His factory in Santa Monica is about a city block big, and  he has 
about 150 employees.  
   
The parking lot was full of soft top vehicles in different stages
of ratty and rotten,  waiting for installations. There were Mercedes,
Corvettes, and even a Miata.  His factory was most impressive, and even more
so to my engineer husband. At one point, I recognized stacks of boxes with
the famliar blue Mazda sticker on it, came to find out that he makes the
tonneau covers for Mazda!  I felt of the  cloth which they also use making
tops, on the factory cutting table.  I saw it in the tan, black and a dark
blue.  I think the black cloth would look very rich on my yellow Miata!

The Robbins top on my BRG is the tan vinyl, with the glass window.  I had the
tan Mazda top on it before, and the first thing I noticed with the Robbins
top was the color matched perfectly with the tan leather seats.  The Mazda
top was off on the color, quite obviously!  The vinyl seems to be a better,
more "sturdy" material.  Since the Robbins top is installed on the original
frame, there are no structural differences at all. That glass back window is
TRICK!  The zipper around the window is  much sturdier than the Mazda window
zipper, and it has a round metal ring for a pull.  You unzip the window, and
unlatch the front and take your top down, doing nothing with the back window;
it lays down with the top.  That is a  clever design,  the way the glass
window lays down, which he had patented.  You never have to touch it!  I also
got the optional matching Robbins boot.  The Mazda boot will go over the
Robbins top, but not without a bit of a struggle, as the Robbins top folded
down is about 3/4 inch higher than the Mazda top.  His boot is also designed
just a bit different, and is also made of the higher grade vinyl.

The first ride home with the top up, I glanced at the  rear view mirror, and
did a double take...I COULD SEE!!  No blurring, waves, distortion!  The glass
is slightly tinted too!  Cool!

I give the Robbins top with glass window three thumbs up!

Bonnie (Lutz)

edited and forwarded by:
John Emerson,  '92 A Yellow
Middlebury, Vermont