Convertible Top Replacement Part I

Destiny's top had seen better days. Well, actually the convertible tops do not see the good days, they only see the windy, cold and rainy. Anyways, it had holes, the rear window had torn off the bow and was hung to top cloth with bolts, the rear plastic window was foggy and the top cloth was so fragile that you could almost push your finger through it. Someone did a nice job with the top years ago, but time is cruel for us all.

The old top ready to absorb all the rain.

Rear window torn between the zipper and bow

Note the broken top pad

So I made a shopping list and ordered the goods from NPD Export Service and within a week they arrived to my doorstep. Meanwhile I produced the plywood gauges according to the measures in the workshop manual.

Read the Part II before making your copies

I browsed the internet but was unable to find a well documented site about top replacement other than those on the Mustang Monthly web site, the older article and the newer. But the first thing to was to pull the old weatherstripping and top. At this point it is wise to document all the steps with pictures and by measuring the original spacing between the bows and the 'bow height',  that being the distance between the center of bow #4 and the front edge of the boot well molding. Each top manufacturer has their own specs for bow height, so the distances may vary. The top frame consists of a variety of links, pivots, bows, rails, brackets, eccentric bolts, nuts and spacers. And if you don't document their order during disassembly, you'll spend twice the time when it is time to put them back. Here are a couple of pictures of the disassembling.

Removed the weatherstrip, but saved the c-pillar w'strips to be used as a tool later.

Header bow has been oxidized badly and the tack strip is shot. The tools point the original rivets which attach the strip to the header bow.

The top is pulled and the worn-out top pads are shown. The bow #2 and #3 have listings but they had been torn off years ago.

These top pad screws in the header bow cost me many drill bits. 

Finally I had to drill new holes and make new threads. 

Once all this had been revealed, it was time bury my thought of not needing to disassemble the top frame. It had also became inevitable that no top decor shop would have taken this project without a pile of euros. 

So I pulled the frame out of the car and put the metal pieces in a box and delivered them to be sandblasted.