Soft top pt. 2

So part 2 started on Saturday morning. I was installing the lift-the-dot snaps when Brandon and Allison came out to pick up some stuff they left over Friday night. The snaps are a pain to install: you have to punch a hole through the fabric for the stud, then you have to cut 4 little slots around the hole. Then you feed the grommet spikes through the 4 slots and slide them into the grommet backing on the other side of the fabric. Then you bend the spikes over to grip the fabric. They work really well once installed, but my fingertips are worn off from the process. Brandon and I broke one of the studs installing it in the body, so I'm going with 11 snaps instead of 13. No big deal. All the snaps are in place - thank goodness.

During soft top part 1 we noticed that the rear brace was too short. It's final position should be just behind the roll-bars, but we couldn't get it to fit there properly without it smashing up against the roll-bars. So Brandon and I came up with the idea to build what we entitled an 'extend-o-bracket'. We worked together to come up with a design that would keep it from lowering the brace further than we wanted. I'll take some pics of the 'extend-o-bracket' later and post 'em up.

Later on Saturday, Diana helped me to glue the windshield brackets to the fabric top. It wasn't pretty - or easy. We stretched the top tight and put a piece of tape on the corner where it laid over the windshield. Then we rolled it back and put some glue on one side of the bracket. We tried to position it as best as we could, using guestimation way more than I was comfortable with. We did a test fit and made some adjustments, then we glued that sucker together with contact cement. That stuff is really messy and I'm not too good at it so the glue is pretty much everywhere. Once it all dries completely, I'll spray paint all the over-glue black and it should be pretty unnoticeable...relatively unnoticeable...passable.

Anyhow we got everything glued in place and it's clamped down right now. It takes 7 days to fully cure. Luckily for me - rain in the forecast for the next 7 days so ugh.

Oh I almost forgot, the door windows mount in by 2 posts that slot into 2 holes in the door. I measured very carefully and did a visual verification that the door posts line up. Unfortunately, it's such a tight fit that the slightest variation causes it not to fall in place. I used the grinder on the posts and got the passenger side to fall in. It's still not very pretty though, there is a gap between the window and the canvas on the backside, and it's too close to the window. I might have to summon on Joshes welding skills once again to place the posts in a slightly different position on the window. The door posts aren't really movable.

Once the glue is dry I'm supposed to drive a few hundred miles before I place the braces back in.