Progress on #782

DanEC · #10 (**permalink**) 02-17-2014, 03:58 AM

Patrick - keep the installation tips coming. So, if I understand correctly, you put the front bows in the windshield slots and loosely secure them. Then you start with the center lift-a-dots - and this is before installing the bows? If I understood the earlier comment you assemble the bows, insert one side in the ferrell, and the pushing up on the center of the bows (and top) swing the other end around and get it inserted in the other ferrell?

And I still kind of like the color - just haven't warmed up to the rollbars yet. One reason I'm tackling my own top is that I don't have a roll bar to work around which will simplify things a little. Not sure it would make doing it myself a no-go, but it would definately add another dimension. But, I guess from recent polls I'm way into the rollbar minority - somewhere around having a death wish and having little regard for my wife/passenger safety.

ERA Chase - the relationship between the weather needed to install the top and the weather when you need the top, hasn't exactly escaped me. I figure the top either goes on, on a warm Fall day and stays on until Spring - or it will probably stay in the trunk while the car hibernates in the garage through the winter. Not sure yet - may vary from year to year.

Kevin - I would have figured ERA has a template they use to drill the stud holes. Surely they do, but it may have been revised a few times slightly over the years. I didn't record the stud to stud measurements but I did find two that had a 1/2 inch difference from side to side - and I assume there may be two more with a 1/2 inch difference the other way to get back on center towards the back??? As I mentioned there has been some change in the bows over the years according to Jack. My top is made by Robbins and I wonder if the pattern on it (or even the supplier) may have slightly changed over the years too? After doing the lift-a-dot tabs, and seeing how carefully they have to be installed, I would have to agree that using a top fitted to another car would be a real high risk.