mx5cartalk.com

Hi Guys.
This weekend has been a big one for me.

I decided to try and put a new roof on my car on Sunday. It was one of the mohair roofs with the glass rear window from Prestige Autotrim. The roof itself was pretty good except having to reuse my old rain rail, some chalk marks on the inside and the rivet holes not being punched out.

I got the whole roof on then reattached it to my car. I did the back bolts up first but then couldn't clasp the front up. I was about 1cm away from connection. It was Sunday night by now and I had run out of time so I had to quickly drive over to my mother-in-laws house to keep it under a car port for me to look at the next day.

The next day I undid the back and clasped the front and then did up the bolts at the rear. Tight as, but it is on.

I am now terified at the thought of putting my roof down. Is there some sort of adjustment somewhere that I can loosen things off a bit with. I tried searching but came up with zilch. Hope you can help.

Ben

i think theres some adjustment in the clamps that hold it onto the A pillar, but what you've written is all normal. just leave it on for a while, some auto trimmers recommend two weeks or so without lowering the roof to let it stretch a bit. parking in the sun helps it to stretch too.

There is not really any adjustment,every new roof I have fitted have been very tight to close for the first time,usually takes 2 people,just leave it closed for a couple of weeks,it sorts itself out...It will loosen up.

Really tight is normal at first. The trimmer that did mine said to leave it closed and when possible, wet it and leave it in the sun.

What they said above. When I first got my car the hard top was on it and the soft top mustn't have been put up for a long time because it needed two people to stretch it enough to do the clips up.

When I got the soft top replaced I was advised to leave it up for 2 weeks to let it stretch. Nearly 12 months later and it's still hard to clip up if I've had the hardtop on for a while.

Thanks for the info guys. I was worried there for a while.

Shame about leaving the roof up though. It's a beautiful day in Melbourne today. Sacrifices we have to make for a bit of style

Ben

Mental note to self: Don't buy replacement soft top until the middle of winter.



Matt

Only other tidbit I'd add is that it'd stretch faster and easier if you leave the car parked out in the hot sun.

Your asking a bit much for Melbourne. I don't live in sunny beautiful QLD

Will try though. I think we have a few nice days coming up so shouldn't be a problem. I'll leave it for a full two weeks before I let it down