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Purchasing a new hardtop for my 1999 NB. The dealer has quoted me $380 to fit the hardtop and adjust, not including fitting trim panels, striker plates or frankenstein bolts I've already done that myself. It seems abit steep! Can anyone recommend a fitter in Sydney? Is it diffulcult to fit and in particular adjusting it myself? All advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Con

You could do it yourself or I could do it for you for $3.80 ;)

It's 2 latches @ the front, 2 side latches and 2 rear bolts.

It's seriously easy the dealer is robbing you blind pm me if you want more help.

Con65 wrote: not including fitting trim panels, striker plates or frankenstein bolts I've already done that myself.

So it's $380 to lift the top onto the car and then tighten the latches? Which dealer is this?!

Read this guide and you should be able to do it yourself:
http://www.miata.net/garage/latch_adjust.html

If you're still having trouble then I'm sure anyone on this forum would be happy to show you or do it for you.

Which part of Sydney are you in?

Jeez! Do name and shame the dealer who wants to charge you $380 for two minutes work for one person.

I wonder if the dealer didn't accidentally look up the soft top installation charge ?

Thanks to all for your help. I will go it alone. I live in Drummoyne, Sydney. In all fairness the dealer was cheaper by $350 for the hardtop than the others. If I run into trouble i will definetly get back you guys. Will post pics when done, 10th Anniversary blue with solid white hardtop.

Cheers,
Con

All that's needed to install it are the two "frankenstein" bolts to go on the rear deck, they are about $25 each from Mazda spare parts.

There are also a pair of catches that are supposed to be bolted to the car just near the seatbelt retractors, they require some trim panels to be cut.

You can easily, and safely, use the hardtop without these catches though, and it also means you don't need to cut up the interior to fit two ugly looking catches.

When I bought my hardtop, drove the MX5 (NA8) from Canberra to Sydney, inspected HT, paid for it, carried it out to the MX, put it on, secured it, drove back to Canberra. No probs - couldn't have been easier.

New hardtop fitted.

Did they actually charge you to fit that?

No, the guy from spare parts helped me unpack and fit it. A very helpful person.

Oh cool. Any plans to colour match it?

Con65 wrote:...the guy from spare parts helped me unpack and fit it.

Mazda spare parts? If so, for the price they probably charged you for the hardtop ($3.5k?) the least they could do would be to throw in fitting.

It does look like it's sitting up a bit at the front which means the latches probably aren't on tight enough. You can adjust them by following the guide in the link I posted above.

No plans to colour match. I chose white because I want to create the classic look. I plan on fitting the dark grey watanabe wheels and the rev9 retro filler cap. I paid 3.1k, 3.5k was the price asked by the most dealers. I will check the link and see what I can do. Thanks for all the help.