Hello All
I need answers badly regarding some soft top alignment issues that I'm having. Please bear with me as I will try to describe this the best that I can. I have a hardtop for my car and I have been under the impression that you would start first with the alignment of the glass to the hard top as it is the "template" , once it is aligned then you would adjust the the soft top to the glass.
So, I started off with the hard top first-I have a new hardtop seal ( I managed to buy the very last one in existence from BMW, At least that what I was told.). and I installed it (kind of loosely, not glued in place yet at the front rail), the glass sits up very high to where you have to press on the top of the door glass when shutting the doors or it they will catch on the top lip of the seals (the portion over the top of the door glass) but they have a very tight seal all the way around. I have not been able to test with water yet because of course I don't have it glued yet among a few other things, don't know if I'm going to paint the top or reupholster and haven't decided on the headliner material yet
Anyway I digress , I recently purchased a new replacement soft top to redo mine and have run into some issues, I'm stumped and need some help. I started by using the BMW videos to first shim the the top frame to spec prior to replacing the fabric potion. When I did this the front portion of the top where the latch pins go into the receivers didn't exactly go right in easily without some effort. I shimmed the back of the frame some more with one or two more shims and now the front goes in easier but now the back where the lower seal hits the hatch cover piece doesn't make contact and you can see daylight. The fabric on the soft top is and has been very taunt (even before I started to adjust it), and it seems like it got harder to close within the last few years. I'm planning on getting a new rear bottom seal and see if that makes a difference.
I guess my main question is, do I have to first adjust the top frame with the old fabric still in place prior to removing it to install the new fabric or can I get away with installing the new fabric and then align the top frame afterwards without running into problems.
I need answers badly regarding some soft top alignment issues that I'm having. Please bear with me as I will try to describe this the best that I can. I have a hardtop for my car and I have been under the impression that you would start first with the alignment of the glass to the hard top as it is the "template" , once it is aligned then you would adjust the the soft top to the glass.
So, I started off with the hard top first-I have a new hardtop seal ( I managed to buy the very last one in existence from BMW, At least that what I was told.). and I installed it (kind of loosely, not glued in place yet at the front rail), the glass sits up very high to where you have to press on the top of the door glass when shutting the doors or it they will catch on the top lip of the seals (the portion over the top of the door glass) but they have a very tight seal all the way around. I have not been able to test with water yet because of course I don't have it glued yet among a few other things, don't know if I'm going to paint the top or reupholster and haven't decided on the headliner material yet
Anyway I digress , I recently purchased a new replacement soft top to redo mine and have run into some issues, I'm stumped and need some help. I started by using the BMW videos to first shim the the top frame to spec prior to replacing the fabric potion. When I did this the front portion of the top where the latch pins go into the receivers didn't exactly go right in easily without some effort. I shimmed the back of the frame some more with one or two more shims and now the front goes in easier but now the back where the lower seal hits the hatch cover piece doesn't make contact and you can see daylight. The fabric on the soft top is and has been very taunt (even before I started to adjust it), and it seems like it got harder to close within the last few years. I'm planning on getting a new rear bottom seal and see if that makes a difference.
I guess my main question is, do I have to first adjust the top frame with the old fabric still in place prior to removing it to install the new fabric or can I get away with installing the new fabric and then align the top frame afterwards without running into problems.