Installed a new top on my 986 yesterday

[95avblm3]

As the title says, I installed a new Robbins glass window top on my '01 986 yesterday. Thought I would post about it as I followed the tech article provided here on Pelican but found some minor differences and had to address some broken parts that aren't discussed in the article.

Hopefully this will be of value to some of you.

I as mentioned I used one of Robbins glass window retrofit tops. My car, being an '01, had a plastic window. It was still serviceable but was looking pretty bad and had been repaired once before.

The Pelican tech article is pretty thorough and in general, was all I needed to do the job (that and an extra set of hands to help (my dad)). What the Pelican article doesn't discuss it that the middle channel of which a bead sewn to the top slides in would most likely be cracked due to age and use. Mine was and apparently had been for some time.



The article also doesn't mention that there are two middle channels; the one described in the article that is held on with the metal clip and another version that snaps on the frame without a metal clip and has an additional groove which holds the headliner in place on headliner equipped cars. Mine has a headliner. So the part I needed was 986-561-902-01, not 986-561-902-00. I looked at a junkyard for a used part but found them in similar condition to my old one, so I bit the bullet and bought a new one. This plastic extrusion set me back in the neighborhood of $250, which seems steep for a simple plastic extrusion but what can you do?

The other thing not discussed in the article was what to do with your headliner. The headliner has a plastic channel sewn on that is meant to snap onto the frame toward the leading edge. Similar to the middle channel for the top, this headliner channel will warp bend and crack over time. I found replacement headliners available but all seemed to require transfer of this worn out channel part... and I have yet to find it available anywhere. So a search of the internet found another DIYer who drilled through the channel and the frame and wired the headliner back into place. So that is what I did.

This isn't for the faint of heart. You are drilling through your top frame and if you slip, could potentially drill through your headliner. I used a 1/16" drill bit and .041" stainless wire from Harbor Freight. I helper or clamps are used to pull the channel into position and hold it while drilling. I started on the outside corners and worked my way in with 6 total wire points... YMMV.

Drill the hole and then immediately feed the wire through to hold it. I came back and twisted them tight after they were all installed:



Then clipped the excess with side cutters and bent them sideways so as to prevent poking through either the headliner or top:



Then used some really good missile tape (Gorilla brand in this case) to tape over the wire to prevent movement:



And as a final measure, used some camper top foam that I got from my local home improvement store to prevent the wires from showing through when the top was finished. The foam was dense enough to stand up to the tautness of the top but soft enough to confirm to the wire and result in smooth finish on the final product:





All in all, the article was pretty thorough. It's just hard to capture the variations over the different years of a particular car. We completed the entire job in about 12 hours total, which included 3 hours of going to the home improvement store and messing with the headliner. Of course, you could always just remove the headliner. So, for the top alone we were at 9 hours for removal and installation. A big job, but definitely doable in my opinion.

Cheers!

[Dmitry at Pelican Parts]

Hi 95avblm3....thank you so much for this very useful post. I know that our members will appreciate your details and additions to the tech article. If you have any other suggestions for a DIY article, reach out to me and we may be able to work something out. Thanks again!


-Dmitry

[95avblm3]

Originally Posted by Dmitry at Pelican Parts

Hi 95avblm3....thank you so much for this very useful post. I know that our members will appreciate your details and additions to the tech article. If you have any other suggestions for a DIY article, reach out to me and we may be able to work something out. Thanks again!


-Dmitry

Hi Dmitry. Thanks for the nice words. Please feel free to use my post and pictures in any way you find useful. Of course, everyone's experience may be different but the steps I took seemed to result in a really positive result.

The only addition to my previous post that I would add here for folks DIYing their top is to pay very close attention to the orientation of the two weather strips that secure/seal the trailing edge of the top. Initially, I had the weatherstrip from the middle channel in upside down (it has an asymmetric cross-section) and it resulted in wrinkles on either side of the top just behind the side windows. I re-did the aft edge of the top by reversing the direction of the middle channel weatherstrip which resulted in a nice smooth finish all the way around.

Thanks also to the Pelican customer support team for working with me to get the extra part I had returned.

[Dmitry at Pelican Parts]

Thank you for the kind words 95avblm3, we try our best to make sure that all customer needs are met and addressed.


-Dmitry