Has anyone replaced the soft top plastic window themselves?
 

My plastic window is shot from a visual perspective and is now starting to pull away from the soft top stitching. I had a quote of $1100 to replace it ( welcome to California ) and I'm trying to figure out if this is something I want to attempt myself...

Has anyone here done it? Did you do it with the top still on the car? Is it doable without a sewing machine?

If you did do it yourself, would you gladly have paid $1100 to never have to do it again? :)

Thanks as always for any advice.

So I bought my car with the plastic window pulled out, and a previous owner had bought the "kit" off ebay for $50-100 or whatever to do it. My wife and i replaced it, I'd do it again. A few lessons:


1. The instructions indicated you should glue a seam, come back, then stitch. I did not, and opted to stitch. it is not as taut as it could be, because trying to stretch it WHILE stitching just resulted in the stitching holes in the window stretching. If i were doing it again, I'd start on on end, stitch it, keeping it taut, and gluing it. Then, once one side is glued, you can use that to apply tension, do a section, glue. Rinse & repeat.

2. The kit itself came with some adhesive, it was yellow when used. E6000 is much better. I'd just start with that. Dries clear, no issue.

3. You NEED a speedy stitcher. doing this with a needle and thimble is insane. We pulled interior, wife went in the car, I was out, and we did a speedy stitch.

4. My top did not have a "sandwich" construction - it was just an external layer. We stitched and glued the window in, then used some cloth adhesive tape to create a trim inside and cover the plastic window flap.


Overall, it took about 4-5 hours of stitching, then periodic gluing and another hour or so applying cloth tape. It came out pretty well. It's got a little bag to it, but when I'm using the car the top is down anyway. The top is for emergency rain only! I'm sure if doing it again we could do a better job and have it come out better.

With respect to your question? No... I would not pay $1100. If your cloth portion is also toast consider a complete replacement top. I'd expect you could get one installed for not much more than that if you pay for the labor. Less of course if you DIY.

Trust me....find yourself a local shop with experience to replace your full top. There are a few options available like plastic or glass window and even some color choices.

It's a difficult DIY project and often (from what I've seen) the final work looks awful.

I had mine replaced about 5 yrs ago with a glass rear window with defroster wires and very glad I did....even though its a summer driver only and for 99% of the summer the top STAYS DOWN. Since my car is a beautiful 26 year old one I try not to raise it up or down anymore than a few times a year.....(want to run that transmission, nylon gears and micro-switches as few times as possible.....LOL)

I did three tops... my experience is here:
https://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/82464-diy-rear-window-my-new-top.html

I sold the extra top after having redone the original 2 which are on my car and my friend Tony's. Both look quite good, the window tightens up over time.

I don't think it can be done in the car, top removal is simple.
I used a needle and thread, actually 2 needles, 1 inside and 1 outside. The speedy stitcher looks like it would be much better.

Looks like good work! We did leave the top on the car, and worked in/out. The speedy stitcher is quite handy! I've done some heavy canvas, sails, other items with it. Hoping it tightens a bit more, but honestly the top is almost never up :)

Have you tried taking a blow drier or a heat gun at low setting to it?