Well, last night I was putting the top down, and it paused before getting to the end of it's process. When I got home, I inspected the top and latches to see if any damage had occured, and found that the latch had penetrated THROUGH the top. I can only guess that the fabric may have gotten hung up on the roll bar cover and caused the latch to penetrate. So, now I have a 3" hole just behind the latch all the way through the top.

By the way, duct tape doesn't do the job for anything over 10mph.

If anyone knows of a shop that may have experience replacing the fabric, I would appreciate it.
It looks like hardtopguy has the best price for the material, but Honda is going to charge 12 hours/ $900 for the labor.

This is the second time (in 3.5 years/ 109,000 miles) that the top has gotten hung up while going down. The first time, it broke the latch, but I thought that was on the opposite side of where it occured last night. Does anyone know of any TSB's or any other similar occurances?

 

Its a long hard process that is expensive....that is all I know

10-12 hrs is a viable number.

I have read as little as 9 hrs and as much as all day for DIY

 

Yeah, I've seen the DIY article and thought it looked a little extensive. I'm good at figuring things out, but I'm still contemplating that one.

I'm curious to see if the DIY is easy to 'back out' of due to frustration and end up taking it to the dealer with no negative impact to the final installation.

 

I just recently had to have my top replaced (under warranty, by 1 day, thank goodness), and it's a long job. They started on it in the morning and I didn't get it back 'til mid-day the next day. It pretty much requires taking the interior apart - seats out, rear console, rear tray, etc. I've browsed the procedure in the service manual, and handy or not, I know I wouldn't try it.

Bummer about the tear. Warranty or not, it sounds like something fouled up -- maybe they'd be willing to work something out...?

Good luck. Hope it turns out OK.

sf

 

Dealership, or Bob's Top Shop--off of John Young Parkway in Orlando.

 

Bob's top shop =) i agree..

 

Thanks guys.
I'll try to give them a call.

 

If you decide to do it yourself PM me, and I'll come help out. I replaced mine with a robbin's top a few months back, and know what you're up against.

Nate