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Hey all,
I just finished helping a good friend replace the soft top in his 2002 Mazda Miata NB. He bought a Robbins fastback canvas top with glass window w/defroster.
The install was interesting. I got it off without many issues, and getting it on was a PITA. Since it was folded in the box, getting the rear rain rail malleable enough to install into the car was problematic (considering the high was 40F that day).
So I got the top on (though we still need to glue the weather stripping back on). The problem is, we can’t get it to latch! I saw a tip about warming the car up, blasting the heat (with the top closed as much as possible to get the canvas warm enough to stretch easily) and forcing it shut. Tried it and still no luck. Short of getting another 4 people to help us get it shut, and other tips to get this stubborn top shut?
We are able to get the latches touching their latch points, but not close enough to engage them. I should also mention that we adjusted the 10mm adjustment nuts on the latches all the way to the end of their adjustment, and we still can’t shut latch it. I also double checked that the tension cables were installed correctly.
If you guys have any more ideas I’d love to hear them!
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see if this offers any assistance.
Thank you college man for the page, it will be useful if we ever need to replace the top in the future.
UPDATE!
We got it latched. It’s been raining/hailing pretty hard here for the last few days. His interior got a good soaking, but it also means that the canvas got soaked (which gave it a little more stretch). With my siblings home for Thanksgiving, we all pushed on it and got it latched.
That said, there is still a problem…
The passenger side latched and locked, but the drivers side would only latch (and the lock did not keep it shut, though the cam on the latch bottomed out). For now, I zip tied it shut. Since he only lives a mile from my place, it should be fine. He’s not driving the car for a few days, so hopefully it will stretch enough by being up and latched that we can get it locked in a few days (assuming there aren’t mechanical problems with the lock).
I’ll update you guys again when we can finally get it latched. Then we can leak test it… If we have major leaks, this thread might just be getting started… But at least it’s latched!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Update:
We finally opened the top since it was closed at the start of winter (when we replaced it), and it latches back down without much of a struggle. Problem is, we still need to keep the zip ties in the latch mechanism to act as a shim (since the latches are worn down from being 13 years old). My friend might replace the latches, but the car is getting kind of rusty underneath. I may try to engineer a homemade solution to put more material back on the latches 😉 .
[quote=”tbonedude89″ post=140258]Update:
We finally opened the top since it was closed at the start of winter (when we replaced it), and it latches back down without much of a struggle. Problem is, we still need to keep the zip ties in the latch mechanism to act as a shim (since the latches are worn down from being 13 years old). My friend might replace the latches, but the car is getting kind of rusty underneath. I may try to engineer a homemade solution to put more material back on the latches 😉 .[/quote]
Thanks for the update. 🙂
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