Rag Top Replacement
 

Hi Class,
I just ordered a new rag top because mine is toast. I'm going to have to install it myself (as always). I've already looked at the instructions on Pelican parts. It looks difficult, but not impossible.
Can any of you give me some tips and/ or tricks to make this go semi-smoothly?

I did this about 2 years ago and I wish I had taken photos along the way as I removed the old top. Make sure to have another hand or two with you so you can verify all that you have done.

The old top comes off much faster than the new one goes on. It makes you wonder how and why it takes so long to put the new one on but believe me it does take a while. Take your time and it will be worth it.

Love my new glass window top and you will really enjoy yours too.

Read Mike Focke's instructions on doing this job. When I did mine I printed out a few different how-to's. and his was by far the most helpful.

Make sure you have the shop supply on hand before you start - two-sided tape, contact cement, etc. Order a couple of spare sliders as the fingers often break during disassembly, along with some of the 2-piece plastic rivets that secure them. Photograph the hell out of that assembly before you take it apart

Inspect your mechanism carefully while you have it apart, especially the plastic socket heads on the pushrods. Porsche doesn't sell the plastic sockets separate from the pushrods, but I can give you a source for them if needed.

I had to drive around with no canvas on the top for two weeks because I got the old one off and then found I needed more parts.

Go slow, take lots of pics during disassembly, and have a buddy to help you with the parts of the job needing three or more hands. It's not an easy job, but definitely do-able.

Do yourself a favor and order the plastic window guide parts from your local dealer, its like 20 bucks in parts and will mean not having to spend an hour carefully removing the old ones. This was by far the biggest PITA in my top replacement.

I don't know the part numbers offhand, but your dealer may be able to help identify them.

Exactly - that's the sliders I'm referring to. I can look up the part #'s for you if you need them.

I bought my top from Prestige in the UK and they (without being asked!) supplied replacement sliders with the top. I thought that was pretty darn impressive.

What guides or slides are you referring to?
 

I'm not sure what parts you're talking about that you ordered from the dealer. Would you please elaborate?
Thanks.

The parts they are talking about in figure 14.

Pelican Technical Article: Boxster Convertible New Top - 986 / 987

Thanks Class. I knew you would come through with the little tidbits that will help this project along. My top should be in next Tuesday. Boxster Red w/ glass window. I'll stop by Porsche and get the parts.;)

left slide 986.561.669.03
right slide 986.560.670.03
right clamping piece 986.561.559.01
left clamping piece 986.561.560.01
pins 986.561.597.00 (get 2)


While you're in there, make sure the foam trays aren't ripped and that the drain tubes are clear.

Thank you for the part numbers! Big help.
 

I have a 2000S and a 1998 that I'm pondering top work.

I just ordered the plastic parts from Porsche. should be in Monday or Tuesday. Now to get me some double-sided tape and glue.;)

Yeah, make sure you get the exterior grade tape. The 3M stuff is pretty good.

Turning out to be a nice tips and tricks thread for top replacement. It's really not that hard to do, especially with the inexpensive new parts. A very satisfying DIY!

We shall see. I ordered the 2 sided tape, I have the black fast tack adhesive, and I have the spray contact glue. Wish me luck!

You sure you want to use the spray? It can get pretty messy, and you will be applying it in a fairly narrow path. I like the bottle that come with it's own brush built into the lid.

I only used two adhesives.

3M body tape
3M Super weatherstrip adhesive

Woo Hoo! All the parts are IN! Top came in yesterday. Man it looks gorgeous. Porsch called . parts are in, gotta go pick them up. Double-sided tape has ben delivered. Let the games begin!

PS. Jakekit, I'm with you on the two adhesive program.

Brock,

Who did you order your top from?

I should also mention that most of the tops don't have the front edge cut properly for installation like the OEM tops. You'll need to do some VERY careful trimming there most likely.

oh, another tip. When trying to install the top onto the metal wing plates on the top, use an awl in the holes to leverage the top into position to get the other screws lined up.

Final, removing the old top alone is no big deal, and installing the new one all the way up to the part where you are attaching the wing plates and the front edge is ok solo, those last steps its nice to have a partner.

Finally, you'll definitely want to have the silicone lubricant or whatever it is to get the back edge weatherstripping installed again.

Oh, more...

On the adhesive front, I ended up not using a whole lot of the super weatherstrip adhesive. It's a bit messy and hard to work with. For what its worth I have had zero leaks or other issues at this point. I installed in May. Been through many washes and lots of southern summer thunderstorms.

Please take some pictures of your DIY top installation.

I got it on ebay from Auto Top Factory, LLC. I am familiar with the weatherstrip adhesive...note to self: Do NOT get any of this stuff on the top.
As for the pics, maybe. I went to Mike Focke's webpage and Pelican Parts tutorial. they both seem to have a pretty good grasp on the topic and lots of pics.

I'm sure it's the same top as everyone provides. Very nice quality. I went plastic window. I didn't want to give up the size or the engine access.

Also agreed on the photos. There is nothing new to be documented in this area.

Well I got the top on! Ran out of daylight so I couldn't tweak it. Needs to be adjusted because there is wirnkles where metal plates are.

Mine has the wrinkles as well, going on 5 months. Still haven't gotten around to fixing them.

Brockmeister,

About how many hours have you spent on the replacement?

I have the German A5 glass window top from GAHH on it's way. I'll try to stop by Porsche tomorrow to order the pieces recommended in a previous post. Hope it'll all be in by Friday so I can start work Saturday morning, weather permitting.

Figure about 8 hours of working slowly without much assistance or the plastic guide parts. With a helper an the parts 6 hours is reasonable.

It took about 8 hours. I'm still tweaking a few bits here and there. It would have gone quicker, but we had issues with the double sided tape. We also had issues with the aluminum plates not sticking. I reccommend using the weatherstrip adhesive. The sliders went on and off pretty easily.
The top itself, being aftermarket, needs to be adjusted because the sides don't line up in any particular way.

I ordered these parts today. $17.02 for the slides, $12.16 for the clamping pieces, and $2.47 for the pins. Came to $63.30 for all of it. Of course, none of it was in stock, so gotta wait for it all to come in.

Just for clarification for anyone else going in to order these pieces, right slide above should acutally read 986.561.670.03. Just a typo. Also, these pieces are for the 97-02 model. The 03 and up (but don't know up to what year) would require different clamping pieces: 986.561.559.02 and 986.561.560.02.

I'll try to pick these up tomorrow from an Autozone or Napa or whatever. Should only need one package of each?

Thanks everyone, especially Mark_T for the part numbers, for gathering all this info in this thread! Really helps.

Took 7.5 hours today. Took my time to make sure I was doing it right. Took some extra time to do some cleaning. All in all, very time consuming, but definitely doable for an average DIYer.

Like Brockmeister, ran out of daylight. Worked right into the darkness to get it completed. However, with a flashlight, looks pretty good! Couldn't see any wrinkles. I'll have to check more thoroughly tomorrow morning.

Had a problem with the slides I ordered. I ordered 986.561.669.03 and 986.561.670.03. My receipt even says so. And so does the packaging that both parts came in. However, the parts inside the packaging didn't look the same. Looking at the part numbers on the parts, they both end in 02. This is the older style part. The newer style part is a bit longer (has an extension) and is supposed to help guide the top better. Since my old parts were fine, I just reused them. I'll be returning the incorrect parts later this week.

In saying that, I doubt anyone would ever need those two parts, the slides. Appears 99% of the time, all that one would require in order to replace their top, is the clamping pieces. Since I hear they're very easy to break, I was extra cautious when I was removing mine, and I still broke them both! You may not even need the pins, but since they're cheap, why not. Each clamping piece takes two, so both sides would require four.

I bought one 60 inch roll of 3M moulding tape (I guess it's the same thing as body tape) but that wasn't enough. Went back and bought the 180 inch roll. Plenty.

Also, bought the small tube of 3M weatherstrip adhesive, in black. That was more than enough.

The GAHH top looks very good! I have nothing to compare it to, other than the OEM top, but I feel it's made quite well. The only thing that would need improvement is the eye hook on the bottom of the cables needed to be drilled to a larger diameter. The stock screws didn't fit through it. Also, the new top has tabs on it in the same place as the OEM top where it secures to the same screw that holds the bottom of the cables. The new top's tabs didn't have a hole in them. Don't know if that's just a quality defect but I felt that the holes should have been pre drilled.

Also, when I was thinking through my job, realized I forgot to wrap tape around the top of the cables where they connect to the springs. Any idea what will happen if I don't go back in there and fix it?

Went out for a drive. With the glass window, definitely notice the back view begin smaller, but at this time it doesn't appear to impede rearward visibility much at all. However, as I was installing, noticed how the glass window will affect getting into the engine bay. Maybe next week I'll see how much it interferes.

After I got it all back together and closed the top, it got to about 3-5 inches from completely closed and stopped. Brockmeister and Jakekit, did you guys get a similar gap before the mechanism stopped? Had to pull the top down pretty hard to get it to close. I heard it was going to be tight, but damn!

This job took all day. I really wouldn't want to do it again. But since the local shop wanted $500, and they can't get me in for at least two more weeks, I'm very happy to have done this myself. $500 over 7.5 hours comes out to $66.67/hour.

Really can't wait to see it in the sunlight!

Mine wasn't that tight when I first installed it, but I did have to pull down quite a bit to close the gap. With that said, if your top is wrinkle free then you definitely got a tighter install on yours than I did on mine and that would explain how tight it is. Congrats on the job completed!

Also, your local installer is way cheaper than mine. Mine wanted 1500 bucks parts and labor. Ridiculous.

Good point on the eyelets, I think that is a common occurrence. I had to drill mine out slightly as well.

Maybe that't the difference between GAHH and other brands. IDK. They wanted $800 to install mine. That's money to be spent an another part I'm sure I'm going to need at a later date.
Mine was a little tight, but after a week in the closed position now seems fine. The eyelets were too tight so I had a hard time as well putting in the screws. One of the new sliders broke and I had to reuse one of the old ones.
For some reason my tape didn't want to stick. I used the weatherstrip adhesive instead and it worked great. It seems that we all had similar issues with our installs.

No quite wrinkle free. I have a few ripples on both sides right above the windows. I'll wait it out to see if they go away on their own when the top is done stretching. I can see them when walking up to the car in the sunlight. Couldn't see them last night standing right over them with a flashlight.

Mine wanted $1625 parts and labor. But if I were to bring him a top, he'd install for $500. And as I was watching him type in the numbers into his calculator, he was only charging $400 to install if I were to get the top through him. Guess he needed to pad his profit if he wasn't going to make anything off parts.

I used clamps to hold the parts to the tape. Helped to get them to stick. However, not sure about that rear seal yet. After a week of letting it stretch out, I'll open up the top and see if that tape holds the rear seal in. Otherwise, I'll use the weatherstrip adhesive.

My mechanic (a Porsche tech by day) says he consistently runs into the wrong parts going into bags and being labeled wrong in Germany. The parts are always the right thing, but for a different model or a different model year.

Now, I examine parts before I leave the counter when I'm forced to buy them from the stealership.

I'm guessing it's more common than most people think. I went to the parts counter, expecting an attitude or needing to *prove* the parts are wrong. I simply said the part numbers I ordered were right on my receipt, right on the packaging, but ended up being the wrong part due to mislabeling. The guy took them right back without even blinking. Either outstanding customer service or a well known problem. Or maybe even both. I left the dealer very happy.

Did anyone else with a new top notice the smell? I can't place it. Smells chemical-ly. Can't tell if it's the top or the weatherstrip adhesive, but at least for today it was best to drive with the windows open. I didn't *sniff* the top when it came out of the box, but I didn't notice an odor then. Must be the adhesive. I'm sure it'll fade away in a couple days.

I thought there was a tensioning adjustment bolt on each side in the car to set the installed length of the cables. I've never done a top but remember reading about it on another forum. Here's a link to a thread with a picture.

Soft top adjustment - RennTech.org Forums

Three month update!

The chemical smell went away after a couple weeks.

The small wrinkles, or ripples, are still there. Looks like if I want them gone I'll have to pull the top a little more in the front right corners. However, the ripples are very slight, and it's not worth it to me to pull everything apart to fix it. I can live with this small blemish.

After about two months, I was able to close the top without having to pull it forward. At first, the top would stop movement about 3-5 inches from the closed position. Now, it's an inch or two. Close enough that closing the latch makes the hook engage and pull the top all the way shut.

I'm still very happy with this GAHH top and very happy with my DIY install. Unless I really think about it, I never notice the glass window being "small." The view is more narrow top to bottom, but that's okay. I only really need to see straight out the back, so I don't really notice the limitation. The view left and right is unhindered. Now that the temps have dropped, and I've been finding *ice* on my windows, really love the defroster. Access to the engine bay is only slightly hindered, but I gladly live with it given the benefits of the glass.

Bar10dah, thanks for this review. I've been on the fence over the engine access issue (as well as the price, to be honest) but it's a replacement item I really want to purchase and install myself. It actually sounds like a fun project and while lengthy, I would save a lot of money and be proud of yet another repair/enhancement I did myself.

I can still get into the engine bay easily, as standing back by the rear fenders you're leaning into the engine bay from a rearwards angle anyways. But taking the rear storage shelf out takes a bit more maneuvering.

There are other cheaper tops out there, but from the GAHH site, w/ glass is $820-$925 and w/ plastic is $725-$767, depending on the type of canvas you choose, Sonnendeck or German.

Is the website in your signature yours? Nice site. I'm interested in the stalk. I just have to fix my P-codes first.

Bar, I need to update my site and get that stalk info off there. I sold it last year. But yes, that's my site.