Has anyone replaced their top on their own?

[s13_dr0pt0p]

If so how big of a job was it? Any problems? Let me know, labor is expensive for it so I want to see about just doing it myself.Thanks!

[Eikon]

I know a couple of guys have done their own top replacement.

It's a very time consuming job. It's not extremely difficult technically speaking, but it's really a challange to get all the cloth on straight and without wrinkles.

If you do try it yourself, please take lots of notes and photos and such.. I'd love to see a how-to article for the 'vert forum. We'd all really appreciate it if you could do that.

Here's a thread that talks about it. zerothread?id=175386

[s13_dr0pt0p]

Thanks Eikon if I decide to do this myself, I'll make a "How-to" thread.. Kinda leaning more towards just paying the shop to do it though... hehe I'm lazy =X

[Adam61988]

I replaced the back window section. Wasnt too bad, took maybe an hour and a half. If you would like the details let me know.

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

I replaced the back window section. Wasnt too bad, took maybe an hour and a half. If you would like the details let me know.

Yes please tell me how you did this. My rear window cracked a few days ago. I covered the cracks with tape but it's an eyesore.

[Adam61988]

It was my first time doing this ever, and the everything turned out pretty well. I did this about a month ago, so everything is from memory. The whole task though was pretty intuitive, but I did do some things that ended up costing me extra time.

First make sure you have the right tools. You need a moderately powered hand staple gun with stainless steel staples. I know they are more expensive, but it owuld be a complete waste of time to have them rust away after a season. Air powered is not necessary. And obviously the simple tools like a ratchet and a pair of pliers or something similar for staple removal.

Now climb into the back seat and remove the cover that keeps the trunk seperate from the interior of the car. It should just clip onto the backseat with a plastic rail. Remove the rail, and look under and you should see a series of studs sticking out that run along the bottom of the window. the plastic cover is also attached to these with strange lock washers. If you use the pliers you can work them off. I also remember the headliner had some pieces that stretched out and were attached at one point to these same bolts. You do not have to remove the top bar that holds the headliner on. I did this and it was a real pain in the a** getting it back on.

Once those pieces are out of the way, you'll see those studs a little easier. remove the buts on the studs. I believe they use 11mm but I dont remember. Once you remove the 20 some bolts, you'll be able to pull that aluminum bar off. Note the orientation of the bar and the way it contours around the wheel wells. With the bar disconnected the top should be the only piece left. If you look in the center you'll see one little set screw, remove this. Now the top lip should slid out. It didnt take me much effort, so dont force it to much.

Take a good look at the bottom. You should notice three things are attached to the bar, the window section, the actual top, and some flat nylon ribbon that adds support between the sections of the top. Make a good note of where these pieces are stapled in reference to the car and the aluminum bar. Now it is time to remove the staples. Then staple in the window insert and you can take it back to the car, and slide it into the track before you attach the top and the straps to the nylon bar. If you did everything correctedly, all you need to do is bolt the aluminum bar back in.

As for the mistakes, I made a few that I will share with you.

1. I removed the top headliner bar. not a big deal only took me an extra 15 minutes to attach.

2. I removed the bar along the outside of the trunk lid. Once again only cost me a little bit of time.

3. While stapling the straps and the two sides of the top back on (after I had put the window insert in) the one side of the aluminum bar got away and scratced up the side of my car a little. So be careful and keep your eye on it.

4. This was the biggest one. I didnt take notice of the fact that the aluminum bar will only fit in ONE WAY. it cant be flipped around. And after I stapled everything in, I noticed that the holes didnt line up. so I had to remoce the top a second time, and reinstall it. And the second time I did so, there was a small wrinkle in it.

Oh yeah, and since I replaced it, its been damaged again :-( Hope this information helps you. let me know how it turns out.

[Eikon]

Great info Adam. Thanks so much for taking the time to share all that info with us.

Any chance you could snap a few photo's to help illustrate things.. If you can, I'll get the article managers to reformat your write-up and we'll make in an official article here on NICOclub. You'll get a custom title by your name... but moreso.. the appreciation of all the other members.

Thanks again!!!

[AZhitman]

Nice work Adam, welcome aboard!

Sorry to hear about the new top getting damaged...

Glad to have you here, we're going to make this into an article - Hopefully someone else will tackle the task and take pics so we have a full "how-to".

[Adam61988]

Since everyone seemed to appreciate it, I'm working on the pictures. I'm going to snap a few of the outside and inside, so you can get a better understand of the various pieces I mentioned. I'll try to have something up by tomorrow afternoon.

I live in jersey so the weather is starting to break, and as soon as it does, I'm redoing my top, so I'll make a full write up for that.

And about the top, its really no big deal. Even with the one little hole its still alot better then my old spidered back window. there is a junkyard with 2 verts a white and a red, and I just pulled the back window off of one, and put it on mine. The whole thing costed me about 20 bucks and some free time. It was a good learning experience though.

[Eikon]

Since everyone seemed to appreciate it, I'm working on the pictures. I'm going to snap a few of the outside and inside, so you can get a better understand of the various pieces I mentioned. I'll try to have something up by tomorrow afternoon.

I live in jersey so the weather is starting to break, and as soon as it does, I'm redoing my top, so I'll make a full write up for that.

.

Adam is my new favorite 'vert club member! Sorry to the rest of you suckers!!

Adam... I'm going to email you for your address... I've got a little gift I want to send you.

Thank you for the hard work and the upcoming write-ups. As soon as they are done, we'll get you the custom title of your choice and get those write-ups published here on NICO and on 240sxconvertible.com as well. You rock buddy!

[Adam61988]

This first picture is a snap from the backseat and it shows the drivers side. the passenger side looks identical. Note that this picture was taken after the plastic cover was removed. The blue box shows the aluminum rail and the "series of studs" And the white box shows the piece of the headliner that is stretched back.

This next picture is also the drivers side from the back. This helps to show that the whole convertible top is actually two separate pieces. and the white box helps to outline the nylon straps that I talked about.

And here is a shot of the entire back end. You can see the wrinkles in it and the piece of tape I have covering the whole :-( I have outlined where the edges of the various pieces are. Since you cant see the bottom layer (the layer that contains the plastic window) I have outlined where the edges are if the top had been cut away. and the red just shows the outline of the outerlayer which most people would consider the top.

And just to let you know, the wrinkles could be corrected if I were to unattach the aluminum bar, remove the staples, and shift the canvas. Unfortunately there is no way to tell if you stapled it correctly and if there would be wrinkles, until you are finished. For minor wrinkles you can gently try to work the top in the proper direction. As I mentioned before, the top is not stapled. there is a plastic piece on the other end, and it slides into a track, the track is held in place by one small set screw. If you leave the set screw loose you can work the top side to side, and then tighten it. When I first finished there was one wrinkle in the top that was barely noticible. As I drive it, it got worse. I believe my problem was that the set screw was a little loose.

I noticed there was a thread about this before, and someone mentioned the velcro. The velcro runs along the top edge of the plastic and it serves no structural purpose. As you can see in the last picture, the edge along the top of the window is a little wavy. thats because the velcro became unsown from the plastic window, so it was basically useless. Did the top leak? no. Did it look bad? yes. You have to remember the whole perimeter of the top is attached to something, but that is the only piece that is not. So rather than glue, staple, screw rivet, etc the two pieces together, they used velcro.

Its kind of hard to put it into words, but I would just like to say this: I have no prior experience with convertible tops, nor did I read any articles or talk to anyone. I had no idea the back piece was separate until my dad said so. My experience came from taking mine apart a little, then heading to the junkyard and removing that top, and putting it on mine. In my personal opinion anyone can do this if they just understand the simple concept of how it works and where to start.

[mrk442]

Best thread ever!!