Top Removal 1. Pull the 'top' material flaps away from the frame. This is where the window weather strips was. It is only attached with contact cement so you can just pull it loose and leave them. 2. Remove the cables on each side. There is a phillips screw at the front and and the rear along the side of the frame. I brought the top slightly down to help release the tension on the cable and then unscrewed the front and rear screws and pulled the cable out. 3. With the top up, unscrew the metal channel from the first bow. This is inside the car on the bottom side of the bow. This will release the metal channel which can then be pulled upwards to separate it from the bow. Once it is separate from the bow, to remove the channel pull it sideways. Now that the side cable is gone and the flaps are loose, you can lift the side of the top enough to allow the metal channel to slip sideways out of the lengthwise fabric loop it is in. 4. Remove the top from the header by pulling it out of the tack strip. Since it is glued and stapled, it will be attached fairly well. Watch your fingers as you pull it off because the staples come out and can prick you. The top is now loose up to the third bow (remember the second bow was disconnected in the steop previous to this). 5. Take the 'welt' of the top. This is the little peice that is stapled on the outside of the top along the third bow and has the metal tips on each end. Unscrew the metal tips, then pull the 'welt' off. When you remove this, you will see the staples that holds the 'top' to the third bow. You can try to loosen the top from the third bow by pulling it up, but it was easier to wait until it was disconnected from the rear bow in the next step and pull it up with the rear flaps because there was less material to deal with. 6. Remove the material from the rear bow. This is the hardest part, dealing with the rear bow!!! This was a pain but after the third time, I got used to it. Since the bow is under the rear deck, you have to move itslightly forward and compress it slightly to get enough clearance to get it out from under the deck. To remove the material from the rear bow, you have to unbolt the bow from the rest of the frame and then slide it slightly forward. This then gives you room to push one end slightly toward the outside which give you some play to get the other endout from under the rear deck. First, I unbolted the foruth rear bow from the rest of the frame. I had to move the top a little to get clearance for my wrench To remove the fourth bow, I ended up unbolting one additional frame connector from the metal plate that all the frame bows attach to give me some additional clearance (see picture of this peice). This frame connector is held on with a chrome 9/16" (head size) bolt. Only remove one side!! If you remove both, your top will have no support and the sides will buckle down! Once this peice was shifted out of the way, I was able to slide one end of the bow towards the front of the car a little to get more clearance. This allowed me to get the other end of the bow out from under the deck. Once that end was out from under the deck, there was enough play to pull it so the other end of the bow could be freed. Make sure you cover your fenders when you are doing this to protect them from getting scratched. I didn't notice at first and I scratched my paint a little. With the bow out from under the deck, you can then pull the quarter flaps of material of the 'top' away from the bow. This then allows you to pull the material off the third bow. At which point the entire 'top' comes off. 7. Next, you have to remove the second section (the curtain). This is easy now since everything is exposed. Just pull it away from the now free rear fourth bow and then pull the curtain (window and all) from teh third bow to remove it. 8. The rear fourth bow is now attached to nothing and can be removed and set on the ground. It may still have the well liner stapled to it and you can pull the off carefully (I reused my well liner so I didn't want to rip the material).
Installing the top: Before installing the top, I lowered the top and disconnected the hydraulic cylinders so I could maneuver the top up and down easily. Looking back, I don't know if I need to do this, but it definitely gave me extra space when I was trying to remove the fourth bow. Installing the top involves installing the top pads, rear curtain, and then installing the main 'top'. Pads: The pads run down the sides of the frame. The second bow is not fixed and it's distance needs to be set before you start putting the pads on. I used two peices of string to keep the distance from the third bow to the 2nd bow 18 1/2 inches apart. To put the pads on, start at the third bow, stapling it with 5-6 staples. If you look closely at the third bow, there is a slight depression where the pad should be. Then staple it to the the front into the short tack strip in the top of the header with 4-5 staples. To align the pad before I stapled it, I used the slot where the metal channel fits in the first bow to mark the edge where the pad should be. Then I stretched it taut and stapled it down. Then stapled it to the first bow maintaining a straight line. Lastly, I screwed the pads into the 2nd bow with he two screws. The screws penetrated the pad so I didn't need to punch a hole in the pad first. Potential errors: The pads are sewn on both long side edges. Only one short side edge is sewn, that is the side that goes over the third bow. If you look at the pictures, I made an error here and started at the header and worked backwards. I ended up having to trim the pad even with the third bow rather than at the header when I discovered my mistake, but the problem is that the unbound edge of the pad will be visible. If you trim it correctly at the header, the unbound end is covered by the fabric of the main top. Also, if you put the screws back into the 2nd bow so you wouldn't lose them, make sure you remove the screws before you staple the pad down or you'll have to pull the pad back up again to get them out. Rear curtain: The second bow pivots and the fourth bow pivots so the distances are set by the fabric when you staple it. For the rear curtain, note the distance from the third bow to the fourth bow. When putting the new top on If the distance is too great, then the rear fourth bow won't be pulled tight against the deck which will lead to a sag or wrinkle in the curtain. If the distance is too little, then the top won't be able to come fully up since the fourth bow will run up against the deck and hold the third bow back and not let the frame fully expand out. I was able to lay the old curtain on top of the new curtain and by comparison, mark with chalk 1) the middle of the top (at both the upper edge and bottom edge) 2) the upper outline where it staples to the third bow and 3) the lower outline where it wraps around the fourth bow. The top I purchased had some lines pre-marked for me and they were very accurate in my case. I still wouldn't rely on them without checking however. When I installed the rear curtain it was to the fourth bow which was out of the car. So I could do this part inside, away from the car. First I marked the center of the bow. This allowed me to line up the center mark on the curtain with the center mark on the bow so I knew it would be aligned properly. I stapled from the center out towards the (right) end of the bow on one side and then stapled from the center to the other (left) side of the bow. I stopped where the bow started to make a 90 degree turn. While I stapled, I made sure that the material was pulled taut towards the side I was stapling to and that there were no wrinkles. When the bow starts to make it's 90 degree turn, I had to hold the material to the end of the bow so I could see where the material would bunch up because of the decreasing radius. To make this easier, I stapled the top of the curtain to a wooden rod and let the bow hang by the stapled material. It seemed to work well for me. This allowed me to come around the turn really nice. I had some initial staples that I put in that I removed and restapled once I hung it and could see that it wasn't taut. NOTE! While you are doing this, the inner well cover should be stapled along with it. The well cover has the old staple holes in it, so you just align those staple holes with the tack strip and staple through the curtain, through the well cover, and into the tack strip. Remember that the well cover covers the bow as you are looking at the bow from the inside of the car. This means that it goes over the top of the bow just like the curtain and not under the bow. When you are finished stapling, you can then bring the entire assembly out to the car. Insert the rear bow by putting one end in first, sliding it forward to give yourself some play which will allow the bend to go under the deck. Then you can push the other end of the bow/bend under the deck. The bow is not rigid and flexes. I was very cautious/gentle at first but after doing it, I realized that it needs a firm hand. Once the bow is in, bolt the bow back up and you can bring the fabric up and start stapling it to the third bow but before you do this you must mark the center of the third bow so you can align it with the center mark you made on the top earlier. As with the fourth bow, I started in the center and stapled out to the edge on one side then the other side pulling the material taut as I went along. Installing the main top: To install the main top, I started at the rear bow and work to the front. The top overlays the curtain from the third to the fourth bow. The tricky part is getting the third to fourth bow section of the top to align properly. The locating point for this is where the main top is stapled to the third bow. This is 5 3/8" from where the top of the rear window will be on the top. I also cross checked against my old top to be sure. I chalked a line all the way across the top from one seam to the other. This allowed me to see where the line aligned with the third bow as it was draped over the frame. When it was draped over the frame, my chalk mark was aligned to be along the centerline of the third bow (equidistant between the leading and trailing edge of the bow). When the top is aligned to the third bow, I pulled the material down under the deck and over the rear bow. This allowed me to reach over the back seat area inside the car and mark where the fabric would be on the edge of the fourth bow with a peice of chalk. I marked all the way along the rear bow. I also marked where the main top's flaps overlapped the curtain. This mark allowed me to align the flaps on the bow before I start stapling it down. Once I marked the position, I removed the main top. Then I unbolted the fourth bow again and lifted it out. It is still attached to the curtain so you can't remove it from teh car but just rest it on the deck. Make sure you protect your sheetmetal from the ends of the bow with some towels. I then draped the top back over the frame. Using the marks I makde where the flaps over lapped the curtain and also the chalk marks where it met the bow, I started stapling. I actually went past the chalk mark a tad (about a 1/4") to ensure it would be tight. Once I stapled the right flap, I repeated the process for the left flap. When the flaps were stapled completely to the bow, the bow is reinstalled using the same method described earlier when it was installed for the curtain and the bow is bolted in. The hardest part is now done! The rest is very easy. Install the metal channel for the first bow into the long fabric loop of the top. Pull the fabric forward until the channel aligns with the first bow and push the metal channel into the bow. Secure the channel to the bow with the screws removed earlier from the underside of the bow. You don't have to worry about screw holes in the metal channel because the screws just go into the slot in the metal channel and not into actual screw holes. Install the cables in the sides of the top. The spring goes towards the front of the car. The long fabric loop is open enough that you can just slide the cable in. I had to lift the top frame up a bit to allow me to screw the cable down without having to pull on the spring while I was screwing it down. Next, the main top is laid over the front. The center point of the top (material edge towards the front windshield) is marked and the center of the header is marked. Mark the center of the header on the top of the header and the underside of the header. This is again to ensure everything is centered. I pulled the material taut and marked a line all the way across the material where it bends over the header at the front edge. To attach the main top to the header, I put contact cement all over the top of the header and underneath the header where the tack strip is and also along the approximately 5" of fabric that would be against the header. When the glue has dried to the touch, I raised the top frame so the header is up in the air. I then pulled the top fabric over the header (without touching the header) keeping the center marks aligned. When the chalk line was slightly past the front of the header, I let it touch the header and pressed it down evenly on the underside keeping the material taught as I worked from the center out. Once the material was glued underneath the header, I let the tap from come down and stretch the material slightly. Then I pressed the material down all along the top side of the header to ensure that it was well glued down. Once it was glued, I lifted the top again to get under the header and stapled the top to the tack strip. All the remains are the flaps on the side and the top where the window is. I applied cement to the frame and top and let dry. When dry, I stretched the flaps and pressed them down. I did the top one first and then I did the side ones. I had to do the side ones again to remove some wrinkles in the quarter section. You can reapply the glue, let it dry and then it adheres well again. I punched holes in the flaps where the screwholes exists for the weatherstrip using a small awl, and then screwed in the weatherstrip. Now the top can be stapled to the third bow. Staple the top down along the bow from seam to seam. Staple only up to 6" inches past the seam. The new welt will cover the staples. It is long enough to cover is you go 6" past the seams but it will look wierd. Once the top is stapled to the third bow, measure out the welt and cut it to length so that it extends about 6" past the seam on both sides. Staple the welt down. The welt, splits in half and then folds over to cover the staples when done. I put the open part of the fold towards the rear of the car. To cover the ends put the metal caps on the end and screw them down. I put some caulk on the inside of the cap and on the screw. My top kit also came with a long welt strip for the front. I glued and stapled it to the underside of the header into the long tack strip so that the welt is in front of the leading edge of the header and makes a seal with the windshield when the top is closed. For the ends of the welt, I left them a little long and then folded them back and stapled them. You have to remove some of the length of the 1/2" diameter "rope" in the welt to allow you to do fold it under.
Just to make a minor correction to avoid confusion, Satch was saying "4th bow" during his installation procedures. o No: This is actually called the "Trim stick". That is what any manual you read will call it. Not trying to be a dick, just trying to keep somebody from getting confused. Good Luck! -Cortp
It's wordy, but it really isn't as bad as my writing...LOL. Thanks for the clarification Cort, I called the trim stick the fourth bow because I though of it as the fourth bow, hope I didn't confuse anyone.
