[luxuryrules]

Yep... it's exactly as bad as it sounds. The background is that this is the (I assume) OEM vinyl top on my 2000. It's been like this since I bought it. Strap was not in place when I bought the car, I put it place according to the great doucmentation, it sorta worked but never really did.

On closer inspection, I see why. The straps that the ends of the removable strap snap to, on one side of the car is great, but on the other, it's torn. I'll get pics up if I can find a decent way to get a picture of it. But, needless to say, with the tear in there, the strap has extrap play towards the center of the car, and that throws off the geometry enough for the strap not to work. Necessitating 'ear tuck.'

Is there a decent way to repair this type of thing? Being that' it's internal to the roofing, I could care less how it looks, provided it brings the straps back into proper alignment so that the top can work the way that it should.

 

[luxuryrules]

Ok, so here's the damaged side:

And here's the good side:

 

[NHinNC]

you can pull the whole strap out. Fix it, or make a new one, or buy a new one, and use a thin rod( I used a kid's bike flag stick)and a little bit of tape to shove it through.

 

[03txspyder]

Maybe you can figure a way to sew it to the bad side and just snap like normal on the good side.

 

[Ken Branch]

This is very common, when I bought mine it had exactly the same problem. Changed the top recently and installed dev's strap and it's been working fine for me up till now.

 

[cyclehead]

When mine got that bad, I just cut off the mangled pieces. Now I have developed a tear where the "ears" fold, so I've quit tucking them in. I am eyeing a new top in the near future.

 

[T-bone]

0000000000000000

 

[rcntype]

New top now that I've done mines I can say this Lmao.

 

[luxuryrules]

When mine got that bad, I just cut off the mangled pieces. Now I have developed a tear where the "ears" fold, so I've quit tucking them in. I am eyeing a new top in the near future.

That's where I am headed, unfortunately. I'm greatly cogniscent of the fact that ear-tucking will eventually result in a tear, lucky enough not to happen yet but I'd like to get ahead of it.

Looks like I'll try some type of sewing/patching to get it together and get the strap back in.