Miata Mailing List: February 1998, Message #202
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From: 	Don Whiteside <whiteside@tequilaresearch.com>

Subject: top is ON

Date: 	Mon, 2 Feb 1998 14:30:32 +0000



Well, not an awful experience. Started at 11a yesterday, took an hour out

for lunch and another half hour out to lay on the concerte and think "ow my

back hurts." I completely took my time about it otherwise and was done at 730.



A few thoughts on the matter:



	Get a lower back brace, lifting belt, something. The worst part of the job

was all the craning around and pain today. 

	If you're gonna remove the old one while still on the car, make liberal

use of a razor blade and cut away the old top so you can remove the carpet

and rainrail bolts and connections with ease. If you're not gonna remove

most of the old top with the frame off the car and don't have a stand,

you're nuts. I took it off so I wouldn't get any metal shavings in the car

when I drilled out the rivets and it was a hassle and a half, I shoulda

gotten someone to stand there with a shopvac while I drilled.

	I presume all the tops, not just Robbins, come with some kinda string to

pull the cable through the slot. On the Robbins the slot was just barely

too small for the header piece on the cable and I was in constant fear of

snapping the twine. I had to pull hard enough to widen the glued slot

enough to get the mount through. If you don't have a spool cable pull, get

some thicker twine and pull it through first then use THAT to pull the

cable, the roughly kite string thickness that came with the Robbins top was

really too light. Perhaps this top was just marginal and most pulls don't

require this much tension.

	If you're gonna put the top on while the frame is on the car, you're nuts

(IMHO). Some things would have been horrible to reach. Based on the

excellent detailed instructions on miata.net (thank you Brian) here's the

sequence I would recomend:



Unscrew the front retaining plate. Pull off 1st and 3rd bit of

weatherstripping (though the bottom stripping has some push pins I couldn't

get an angle at to pop out while on the car, maybe you can get to them,

otherwise you can let the strip hang if you're careful when you remove the

frame from the car later), you can leave the middle piece alone. I

scratched around the screws so I could put them back exactly where they

came from but if i had to do it again I'd get some fast drying paint to

mark the position. I guess if you have leaks now and might have to adjust

later this would be less important. Unscrew the tracks, drill out the

rivets while someone else holds the shop vac so you don't get filings in

your car. Peel back the top and drill out the cable retainers, use the vac

here too. Cut away at the rear so you can pry off the carpet retainers and

unbolt the rail. I didn't realize at first that there are two push

connectors that hold the rain rail in at the ends, those were a pain to get

at.



This is where I reccomend removing the top from the car. Pull loose the

bottom weatherstripping if you didn't already, remove the retainer clip,

peel away the glued sections, pry open the bows, remove all the top and use

some cleaner to remove the old contact cement residue. Brian doesn't

mention regluing anything but I chose to. Reglue the bottom portion,

reattach the retainer clip, put in the 8 rivets and screw on that piece of

stripping. If I had to do it over again this is when I'd reattach the top

to the car. Pull the cable (which would have been easier with the top on

the car), clamp the bows, rivet the cables, reglue the front, screw on the

retaining strip, screw on the top weatherstripping slot then the front

weatherstripping.



Some notes about Brian's instructions:



There are _4_ rivets on each side, not 3, all near the bottom, aside from

the 2 cable rivets. I used the 1/4 inch bit to drill them out that he

reccomends but if I did it again I'd use a 3/8 or 5/16, the 1/4 was

marginally too small to do the job well. His instructions say to attach the

front plate first then the bows. I did one before and one after and

clamping the one after was a nightmare, I'd do both bows before the front

plate. I also ended up with a VERY tight top, it was hard to clamp it in

place but I had none of the wrinkle problems he reported and I'll bet this

is why. I had to loosen the clamps to their outmost positions, in fact.



I did the job all by myself and the biggest pain was that the bottom pieces

next to the bottom weatherstrip have little pockets to slip the frame into

and if you don't do them simultaneously you may find yourself having to

yank hard to get it over the second side. My advice for this portion if you

can get 3 people for this bit: Lay the top upside down with the frame on

top of it. Apply the contact cement to both sides, have someone hold each

side of the top material and have the third person lift the frame slightly

and lower it while the other two guide the material pockets over the edge.

Once that's done you can fold the rest of the flaps over  and screw them

down and attach the retainer clip.



I had to core out the cable mounts and mount holes slightly to allow the

rivet to fit. When drilling out the bottom rivets I had to hold them from

behind with plyers to keep them from spinning with the drill. Reattaching

the 13 nuts on the rail required a lot of pressure to push the top in so I

could attach them, so much so that I couldn't follow the Robbins

nut-attachment order, though once I got them on I DID tighten them down in

that order.



It's a beautiful windy 65 here in Miami today. Driving around with this top

latched for a few weeks to let it stretch out is going to be hell......