F&%king rear cable

[tristessa]

K, so I'm about halfway through the top replacement process that Briano so kindly wrote up, after a slight detour replacing the headliner, pad and carpet. And I spent about four hours this afternoon trying to get the rear cable into the channel without success before I came home .. otherwise I'da shoved the car into the street and thrown a match in it. I managed to get the rear part in a time or two, but I can't get the sides to pop into the channel to save my ass, and don't even get me started on the corners until I've had a day or two to settle down. On the inside of the top measured from the sewn seam, there's about 1.5"-2" of material..? Doesn't seem right to me. I haven't opened the channel .. should I? It's an EZ-ON purchased from topsonline.com. Rear cable has the plastic sleeve in the middle, nuts are 10MM .. is this the crappy TMI one?

Been home for hours and my hands still smell like KY...

[Briano1234]

Okay, you have to trim all the excess material off the back side you trim it almost to the seam, If you don't you are trying to shove 3 layers of vinyl in to the channel.

You can take a flat blade screwdriver and a small block of wood, use the block of wood on the paint to shield the screw driver.. then wedge it (the channel apart) Line a old timey can opener. Insert your top, and cable pull it tight, then with the top open and use a block of wood over the vinyl and smack the channel back tight.

If you have the cable in the recepticles and the nut on you should only have the nuts on about 1 turn. I usually don't put the nuts on till after I get the rear cable in.

So 1 trim the excess off the back so you are only doing 1 layer.
2 grease the inside of the channel

I tell you that I don't need anything more than my hands to position the cable in the rear channel. It doesn't take me more than 40 minutes to get the rear cable in and tight.

Excess material being trimmed:


bisections cut

[tristessa]

On re-reading my post I can see where I wasn't clear -- the 1.5"-2" flap on the inside of the top above the seam is along the sides, rear is maybe 1/4"-3/8" above the seam .. and that's how it came out of the box. The transition from the wide flap on the sides to the narrow strip at the rear is about where the sharp-ish corner on the body is located. Looking at the bisections pic you posted makes what I've got along the sides seem excessive, but since I left the camera in my buddy's garage where the car is, I can't get pics up until tomorrow...

I'm not gonna be back trying to work on the car until Tuesday at the soonest .. hopefully my "new" rear window seal will be here by then. It was sent Priority from California last Monday; I've had stuff shipped Parcel Post from Florida get here quicker.

[Briano1234]

For the seam I usually trim it all the way as excess is baddddddd.

The first one I did I didn't trim it at all and cussed and fussed the whole time.

[tristessa]

k. Will trim the rear edge back to the seam when I get back to work on it. Should I trim the sides?

Sorry if this is boneheaded stuff, but all I've got on-site where I'm doing the work is a printout of your guide I found on mk1vw.info, and in B&W, the pictures are .. not that helpful at times, 'specially when they've wound up being about 2"x2"..

[Briano1234]

The most current version is here;
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2330

It has the mostest pictures.

Yes trim all the excess But don't cut the seam.....