Top Has Been Tacked

Not a lot of garage time this past weekend, but Mikhaila and I did spend a couple hours working on Scarlett’s convertible top. With the back window already stapled to the three trim sticks (last weekend), we moved on to the stapling the top to the trim sticks. Since this top had been stapled to the sticks before, it was just a simple matter of lining up the holes in the vinyl with the bolt holes in the sticks, right? Wish it was that easy. We started with the short, driver’s side stick and aligned the top’s bottom edge like we thought it should be (using a couple hole-ish cuts in the vinyl) and put in a few staples to hold the edge in place. While holding the window material taut, we tried to find holes in the top that would line up with the holes in the center trim sticks – no luck and the window-edge of the top didn’t come close to the edge of the window causing a lot of white to be revealed. Hoping the other side would be more cooperative, we started by lining up inboard holes in the bottom edge of the top with the outer holes in the center trim stick. Holding the holes in alignment with a couple large Phillips screwdrivers, we popped in a few staples and moved around to attaching the side trim stick. Lo and behold, holes were lining up so we finished stapling the top to the two sticks. Mikhaila insisted we screw the sticks in on that side to make sure we were doing it right. Many minutes and some swearwords later, we were satisfied with the look of the top and moved back to the left side. This time, instead of lining up holes, we lined up the window edge of the top with the window, put in staples, punched new holes, and screwed the sticks into the body. With the sticks now in place, we said a prayer and extended the front bow to the top of the windshield and, after some pushing and pulling, the pins went into the holes and the latches pulled the top down tight. Really tight. Thankfully, not tearing sounds emanated as we pushed and pulled. The top fits beautifully, but the rear bow has not been stapled to the top, so the rear window’s a little saggy. I had to take off at that point, so the final couple steps will have to wait.