I hope I can spare somebody else some of the agony I went through replacing the top on my 1995 Mazda Miata…..
Tip #1: Don’t do it.
I’m serious – take it to a pro. I installed a top on my old MG, and I’m fairly handy, so I figured I could handle this. Well, I did, but I still regret doing it. It took me a whole weekend and 4 weeknights, over 26 hours I reckon. It was VERY difficult, especially for just one person. You will also need special glue, a soldering iron, rivet gun and a whole slew of the usual other tools. If you’ve already bought a top, it’s not too late: call a top shop. They will probably have it done in one day. You certainly won’t.
Still want to do it yourself? OK, you masochist!
Tip #2: Make sure you have plenty of high-powered lights, tools, extra rivets, a large and small pry bar, and extra metric bolts. And time. LOTS of time. Have another car to drive for a few days, or at least have no rain! Have a helper ready or on call. Get the garage plenty warm, so the vinyl on the top will be easier to work with. If you didn’t order the top with a pre-attached rain rail, you are obviously insane. I did, so I can’t help you on that bit.
Tip #3: Download, save, and follow Kent‘s install doc (available here).
Important: You may not want to, but take a break whenever you run into trouble. This will clear your head and give you a fresh perspective.
Tip #4: Before starting, remove the passenger seat. Some say take them both out, but you don’t need to, and they are not exactly easy to remove. One seat out will leave you plenty of room. Plus, you may need to drive your Miata in or out of the garage, right? That would be tough to do standing up! BTW: if you have headrest speakers installed in the seats of your older Miata, either unplug them (if that's an option), or cut the speaker wires in a location that will be easy to tie them back together later.
Tip #5: You do want to take the top assembly (frame) off the car. I know some folks advocate leaving it on to install the new top. Those folks are not your friends. That idea will work until you get to the bottom of the B-pillar assembly. You have to drill out the rivets there and install new rivets, and it is pretty much impossible to do it with the assembly mounted to the car. Take it off, it’s not that hard. Getting it back on is when you will need a helper.
Tip #6: As you begin to disassemble the top, pay very close attention to where each bolt and piece comes from for the reassembly, esp. the top’s rubber moldings. Mark the moldings well for side of car, and position. It couldn’t hurt to take pictures as you disassemble to jog your memory later.
Tip #7: Use a large pry small pry bar to pull out the plastic carpet fasteners, and a small one for the smaller fasteners (such as on the rubber door absorbers). After many years the fasteners tend to be brittle and break easily, even with the right tool. There’s no need to pull the carpet out, just drape it over behind the seat.
Tip #8: When you get to the B-pillar area, tightly warp a towel around each B-pillar to catch any dropped bolts.
After removing the carpet, remove the trim around the b-pillars. Then remove the 3 bolts that attach the convertible top frame and carefully pull the frame off the car. It’s not heavy unless you have a glass window. Drill out the 2 rivets on each side of the top near/behind the B-pillar, remove the B-pillar retainer clip with its one screw, and then drill out the 2 rivets underneath it. At this point you should have the actual vinyl top off of the frame, and can start installing the new top.
B-pillar retainer brackets. I was fortunate that I had them on my 1995 Miata, but apparently earlier models don’t have them. Yes, you need them, and yes $25 is an outrageous rip-off for a simple piece of steel part that cost well under a buck to make. Hey, I TOLD you take it to the top shop!
Robbins top problems: for the top dollar (yuk) that they charge, you would think Robbins would have all the manufacturing details together. Nope! As Kent noted in his doc, the hole for the webbing straps (for pre-1999 Miatas) are all too small.
Tip #9: Widen the holes with a soldering iron – make sure the holes are a little bigger than the studs so they move easily. Don’t presume, try them all on.
The worst problem for me was the holes in the new Robbins top (where it needs to be riveted to the bottom of the B-pillar) were too large. This meant the provided rivets went right through the holes and were useless at holding the top to the B-pillar bottom. This almost put a stop to my installation, and I considered sending the top back. Instead, I tried short bolts on one side which (kind of) worked, but were a real PITA to mount.
The workaround (Tip #10) was to take another piece of vinyl (from the old top, in my case), and punch the rivet through that. This way, the rivet goes through the new vinyl piece, then the top’s vinyl, then through the hole, exiting (and attaching) out the other side of the hole. Got that? It worked.
The second major problem I had was dropping bolts and losing them. Ok, I’m a klutz – but if you have a black Miata you may want to consider painting the bolts around the B-pillar area day-glow or white when you remove them. They have a tendency to fall into the hardest places to reach around the B-pillar and getting lost. Sometimes they fall out the drain hole. Sometimes they simply disappear into a black hole and are never seen again. This was VERY frustrating for me, as (naturally) I couldn’t find any exact replacement bolts in my cans of bolts I have for occasions such as these.
Tip #11: Speaking of the drain holes, stick a coat hanger down them to make sure they are clear while you’re in the area.
Continue through the rest of Kent’s directions, but you don’t have to actually attach the top to the front bow at this point if you don’t want to. Your call.
The tension cables: You should have have a helper for this part. You may need someone to pull the spring portion down, while you screw it back in to the top frame – tough to do yourself. If the cables look badly frayed or are broken, now is the time to replace them.
Reinstalling the moldings: they come out easily, but don’t go back in so easily.
Tip #12: Spray the rubber moldings lightly with WD-40 and slide them in from one end. Note how one side is grooved and fits into the molding while the other overlaps the molding. I found that installing the middle (#2 molding) first works best. Then install the bottom (#3) molding. This part, for me, was also quite a pain, as it was VERY tough to line up the metal molding holder, the top’s punched holes, and the (naturally) black screw holes in the top frame. Tip #13: I ended up using a nail to find the holes, line them up, and then temporarily duct taped the metal molding holders to the top frame until I got them screwed in. The front (#1) molding gets installed after you attach the top to the front bow.
Tip #14: Prepare the top for reinstall by covering both sides of the windows with thick paper or cloth. I kept a towel on the exposed back of the Miata where the carpet was.
Top frame reinstall: This stumped me for a few minutes, and apparently other people too from what I've read online. Somehow my frame bottom must have got turned around or compressed, and the frame bolt holes didn’t line up with the body. If this happens to you, pull the frame back out and open it all the way. Make sure that the top front bolt hole at the bottom is directly above the bottom bolt hole. Then, mount the frame in the B-pillars again, and screw in each side of the top frame to the body. After this, you’re finally getting close to the end.
Attach the top to the front bow if you haven’t already. Like Kent, I used contact cement for this part, as I couldn’t find the specified 3M glue anywhere either. After waiting a while for the glue to dry, attach the #1 (front) molding. Check that all the moldings fit OK when the top is open or closed.
Kent’s doc starts getting sparse at this point. You can now put together the trim around the B-pillars. Then comes the rear of the top – put the foam washers provided by Robbins onto the studs all around the rear. Then put the top’s ABS rain rail over the studs. It will be uncooperative at first but eventually will “settle” into its place. You now need to install the 3 metal retainer brackets (that the plastic carpet clips snap into) onto the studs. This section was a real head-scratcher for me. Neither Kent’s doc nor the horrid Robbins doc mentions the order of installation from here on. Note that the webbing straps need to go onto the 4th stud from the end on each side – but is it before or after the metal retainer bracket is mounted on the stud?! I guessed before. The problem is that now it starts getting very hard for the stud to hold the washer, rain rail, metal bracket, another washer, and the stud nut. My solution (Tip #15): Skip the outside washer on the center (rear) stud, and screw that on to temporarily hold the rain rail in place. Then screw on the nuts to the outside bolts first (next to the B-pillars), then to the web strap bolts, then the rest. If you have a helper handy to press in the rain rail, etc., while screwing down the nuts, lucky you! You may have to forego using the outside washers if you can’t squeeze them on. No big deal, since the Miata didn’t come with them originally and I’m sure it will survive without them.
I, too, had problems with the top not closing initially.
Tip #16: Let the Miata sit in the hot sun for a few hours, and then have a friend help you pull the top closed and latch it. Leave it like that for a few days, then it will be stretched out enough to close normally.
Finally, I reattached the carpet, put the seat back, and had a beer to celebrate that this ordeal was over.
Am I proud of my job? Yes, it looks pretty good!
Am I glad that I saved $500 on an install? Naaaaaah! What a PITA – never again, thank you.
Thanks to Kent Russell for his help!
Mick Seeley
mick_mac_guy@yahoo.com
April 2010
