Hi r3v!
I have a couple of questions for you guys today. I recently bought (last weekend ;)) a 1992 e30 convertible. It is a lovely car! It came with an automatic convertible top that is broken and has been converted to a manual.
Here is my set of questions: I also have a 1989 convertible that has a manual top and I was thinking about the possibility of swapping the entire mechanisms. Is this possible? Does one top fold smaller than the other? Does the mechanism for the automatic top have extra levers and attachments for the automatic mechanism (I’m asking because the linkages are missing)? Are the crossmemebers on top of the mechanism spaced differently? Fold differently? I’d want to do this because the manual top car has a better top than the auto top one. I’m also thinking about repairing the automatic top – would that hook into the manual mechanism at all?
My next set: The top on the 92 has a quarter sized hole right before the second crossmember from the front. The previous owner had it patched from the outside only, but the patch seems to be coming off unfortunately and it looks pretty ugly. I was considering cleaning off the glue and putting the patch back on nicely. The question is – what kind of glue do you guys recommend that will hold and look decent? I have some black rtv adhesive that I was thinking of using, but I’m worried that I’ll put too much glue and it’ll come out the sides and glue up the whole top around the patch making it look bad.
Another quick one: The rear bottom part of the top (around the edges) seems to be curling up. Basically where the top contacts with the tonneau lid, the edges are curling up and looks kind of bad. Is there any easy way to get this to curl back down? Maybe re-doing some glue around the edges?
Last question: Should I fix the automatic top? My motors are running. I haven’t checked the top motor condition yet and I am missing the linkages to the top entirely. If I can source the linkages I was thinking about fixing the auto top. Or if I can find a junker in the yard with all the manual parts I was thinking of swapping that in.
Sorry for throwing all these questions at you guys, but these have been digging at me for the entire week! :) I hope you guys know more and I can learn a lot.
Thanks for reading!
I have a couple of questions for you guys today. I recently bought (last weekend ;)) a 1992 e30 convertible. It is a lovely car! It came with an automatic convertible top that is broken and has been converted to a manual.
Here is my set of questions: I also have a 1989 convertible that has a manual top and I was thinking about the possibility of swapping the entire mechanisms. Is this possible? Does one top fold smaller than the other? Does the mechanism for the automatic top have extra levers and attachments for the automatic mechanism (I’m asking because the linkages are missing)? Are the crossmemebers on top of the mechanism spaced differently? Fold differently? I’d want to do this because the manual top car has a better top than the auto top one. I’m also thinking about repairing the automatic top – would that hook into the manual mechanism at all?
My next set: The top on the 92 has a quarter sized hole right before the second crossmember from the front. The previous owner had it patched from the outside only, but the patch seems to be coming off unfortunately and it looks pretty ugly. I was considering cleaning off the glue and putting the patch back on nicely. The question is – what kind of glue do you guys recommend that will hold and look decent? I have some black rtv adhesive that I was thinking of using, but I’m worried that I’ll put too much glue and it’ll come out the sides and glue up the whole top around the patch making it look bad.
Another quick one: The rear bottom part of the top (around the edges) seems to be curling up. Basically where the top contacts with the tonneau lid, the edges are curling up and looks kind of bad. Is there any easy way to get this to curl back down? Maybe re-doing some glue around the edges?
Last question: Should I fix the automatic top? My motors are running. I haven’t checked the top motor condition yet and I am missing the linkages to the top entirely. If I can source the linkages I was thinking about fixing the auto top. Or if I can find a junker in the yard with all the manual parts I was thinking of swapping that in.
Sorry for throwing all these questions at you guys, but these have been digging at me for the entire week! :) I hope you guys know more and I can learn a lot.
Thanks for reading!