anyone had to replace zipper on na softtop

micksta · Postby **micksta** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 9:57 pm

hi im having a problem with the stiching on the plastic window side of the zip

the stiching on the actual zip is catching and starting to remove it self from zipper

does anyone have any easy solutions or alternatively who can i see to repair?

im in melb

mick

Ben · Postby **Ben** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:58 pm

this happened to my roof

the zipper has seperated from the material around the window virtually the whole way along.

i havent o it fixed yet but want to do it. I have a hardtop thoguh and so i never actually use the soft top.

any suggestions in sydney please let me know

Benny · Postby **Benny** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:25 pm

Most auto trimmers should be able to fix it, or if you are handy with a needle and thread, hand stitch it back yourself.

Maybe your mother can do it for you.
If you take it to a trimmer, he will want to remove the roof to do it (otherwise he can't get it under his sewing machine) so expect to pay around $200 to fix it.

micksta · Postby **micksta** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:08 pm

mx5 factory want $350 to repair

it sounds i little steep so much so that i might consider pulling the soft top out
myself and put the hard top on.

mick

Ben · Postby **Ben** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:20 am

yeah the $200 is a bit much i think i might try an alternative or pay the extra and buy a new roof

Astroboysoup · Postby **Astroboysoup** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:08 am

i had problems with my old zipper, it wouldn't zip up the window and would get stuck around it when i zip it up.

I went to Mazda and bought a $7.50 zipper slider and that fixed it all up for me...

Benny · Postby **Benny** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:37 am

Astroboysoup wrote:i had problems with my old zipper, it wouldn't zip up the window and would get stuck around it when i zip it up.

I went to Mazda and bought a $7.50 zipper slider and that fixed it all up for me...

If you would have gone to a YKK Zipper office, you could have got it for about $1.00

JBT · Postby **JBT** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 3:55 pm

An upholsterer just recently explained to me that a straight (dodgey replacement) zip will always get stuck in an MX-5 roof because the zip path is not a straight. He said it has to be a special type of zip (helical?) that allows the outer and inner parts to feed together even though they are slightly different lengths

Benny · Postby **Benny** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:30 pm

JBT wrote:An upholsterer just recently explained to me that a straight (dodgey replacement) zip will always get stuck in an MX-5 roof because the zip path is not a straight. He said it has to be a special type of zip (helical?) that allows the outer and inner parts to feed together even though they are slightly different lengths

Most zippers today are helical, or spiral type zips, as they say in the trade.
Spiral zip tape is much easier to make (and cheaper) than the tradional toothed type as the nylon spiral is continuously threaded onto the cloth tape instead of individual components being moulded onto the tape.