replacing the top

[Briano1234]

Looking real good Brian. However, if you still haven't gotten it finished by Friday night, let me know. Cristine will be out of town this weekend so I could easily make the haul out to your place on Saturday and lend you an extra hand or two.

I have gotten the rear window in, it took about 20 minutes, new stapler...

I am convinced that I will have to get a new rear cable from VW. This one is the pits..... I have had it out 3 different times, and it just in a word SUCKS. GET GENUINE VW. I might investigate making one that is as good since I have the old one I took off. If I have an easy night I hope to get the side seals on.

And start cleaning the interior out to get it cleaned and to the exhaust shop.

Then WED I might have to make a road trip.



You can see the cable grief for yourself.

[gull]

Well, I started my top replacement adventure today. I'm replacing the shell, headliner, and insulating pad, due to a break-in, so I had to strip it down to a bare frame. That went pretty well. I took my time, taking lots of pictures and marking things with grease pencil so I'd be able to get them back together properly.

I got the new headliner put in, but it was a struggle. I had a terrible time trying to staple it to the rear bow. I had bought a Stanley electric staple gun, but it just wasn't cutting it -- the staples wouldn't penetrate, they'd just bounce out or get mangled. I got a hammer-type stapler and tried that. It was only marginally better. The material the stapling area is made of is extremely hard and kind of brittle, almost like Bakelite. I finally got enough in there that, along with the contact cement, I think they'll keep it from coming loose. I test-fired a few staples into the rear window frame with the electric gun and that went better for some reason, so hopefully I'll have an easier time doing the window opening when I get to that point. Part of the problem may be that the building I live in is old, and the wiring has a lot of voltage drop. I'm probably not getting as much impact out of the electric gun as I should be.

I ran out of light after finishing most of the headliner, so I threw a tarp over the car for the night. Tomorrow I tackle the pad and the outer shell. It doesn't look half-bad for the first one I've ever done, certainly better than the old ripped-up one. There are a few small wrinkles, but after everything is done I can probably "shrink" those out with a hair dryer.

If anyone has a good picture of the D-pillar area of the headliner, I'd appreciate seeing it. My old one was all shredded in that area, so I have nothing to go on, and I'm not clear on how the side pieces are supposed to fit.

[gull]

I got the padding done, and I'm breaking for lunch. It went together all right. I found the secret to stapling into the rear bow with a hammer tacker is to press upwards from beneath while driving the staple. Otherwise the bow flexes slightly, dulling the impact. Also, avoid the areas above the rear window support straps -- the stapling strip is unsupported there and it's very fragile.

The instructions in the Cabriolet FAQ mention a pop-rivet gun. This is needed for fastening the straps for the insulating pad and top, and also for securing the front inner corners of the headliner. What they don't mention is what kind of rivets you'll need. I used 1/8" aluminum, in medium and long grip lengths.

Check your headliner carefully before you install it. Mine was an eBay special, and the side pieces were sewn on inside out! Fortunately it's only really obvious in the back, where no one looks anyway. Due to my inexperience, I didn't notice the problem until it was already installed.

[gull]

Everything's back together now except the rear window. I decided to put that off, because I was afraid I'd run out of daylight again, and this way the car is weatherproof and drivable. In fact, I took it for a spin just to make sure all the weatherstripping was properly installed.

Overall it looks pretty darn good. Better than the rest of the car, anyway. The rear cable was the pain in the rear everyone says it is. I'm still not entirely happy with it; it's not seated as deeply as I'd like at the corners. At a certain point I decided the cosmetic improvement I'd get by seating it more deeply was outweighed by the increasing odds that another tighten-and-tap cycle would snap the cable, and I decided to leave it be.

[1lowcab]

damn! you should have taken pics!!!!!! i'm not looking forward to the day i have to replace mine
sounds like a pain the the ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
good job tho!

[gull]

I did take pics...lots of them. Most of them are pretty dull, though -- just pictures of details of the pad and headliner so I'd have a reference for putting the top back together. I did put up some of the more interesting ones:
http://www.gull.us/photos/automatic/ind ... ement&pg=0
If anyone needs some of the detail shots I've still got them. Keep in mind this is at least the third top the car has had, though, so probably not everything is stock.

And yeah, it was a big job. I don't regret doing it, but I hope I don't have to do it again for a while. I'd say it's the most time-consuming car repair I've ever done. (The previous holder of that title was replacing the heater blower on a Volvo 240.)

[gull]

I put the back window in today. Cutting and stapling the opening went easier than I thought it would. One of the tricks here is to use two hands on the stapler, whenever possible -- putting one hand on top, directly above the driving mechanism, keeps the stapler from kicking back and helps drive the staple more deeply. I didn't have any trouble getting 1/4" staples driven flush with my electric stapler.

Putting the window back in took my helper and I three tries. The first attempt I used garden twine, which was obviously not up to the task. The other two I used 1/8" nylon rope, which worked much better. A tip -- when inserting the window, put the top edge in first, as it's the hardest to get seated. Push it in as far as you can from the outside before you start pulling on the string. Have your buddy follow you around as you pull on the string, leaning on the outside of the window next to wherever you're pulling. Soaping up the inner seal lip good before you start helps, too, but in hot weather the soapy water is going to evaporate before you're halfway done.

Since people keep asking for pics, here's the finished window:
http://www.gull.us/photos/automatic/ind ... g_1023.jpg

I probably should have taken a picture of the opening before putting the window in, but I didn't. It's really pretty obvious how it works when you take the old top apart. Instructions differ on whether you should cut the top to the shape of the opening first, or not. I chose to cut a big X inside the opening, so I had more material to grab onto as I pulled things into place. I made relief cuts at the corners as necessary, then after I had all the staples in I ran a blade around to trim off the excess material.

[1lowcab]

lookin' good!!!