sewshulstudeez

Since it was a nice day yesterday, I decided to drop the top on my S2K for a bit. When I got to my destination, I went to put the top back up. All I heard was a pop, and glass dropping.

I bought this S2000 recently. It's an 01, with what looks like a Robbins 02-up soft top. I noticed that whoever installed the top, did not add the additional 4 straps to hold the 3rd rear bow back when the top came back up. (see Post by Clovis ) I'm not sure, but I'm thinking because the 3rd bow was pushed up back against the 2nd bow when it came up, it may have caused pressure on the back glass causing it to pop.

So I'm in the market for a new soft top. I'm looking at another Robbin's again or OEM. I don't really want a hard top cause I like going top down. I'm just looking for a good reputable installation shop to do the work. I want to make sure they are familiar with putting an 02 up glass top on an 00-01. Anyone have any suggestions? I'd hate to drop 1500 or so on another top only to have this happen to me again. I'm more concerned about quality work than price.

So far, I'm looking into:
Fred's Top Shop (2000 Installed for Robbins Vinyl Glass Top, 2260 installed for Robbins Canvas Glass Top)
Golden Upholstery (1250 Installed for Robbins Glass Top)
PUC Upholstery (1400 Installed for Robbins Glass Top)
King's Upholstery (1500 Installed for unknown brand Glass Top)

Another option was getting an OEM top through a friend at Honda and having one of these shops install it.

Please feel free to chime in with experiences, or if you know of anyone who has had good/bad experiences with any of these shops.

Mahalo!

b5boy

Ouch! Good luck finding somewhere. I have never been in the market for a new soft top so I do not know much, but I would imagine it would be hard.

bouford

Lucky-R

Damn so the soft top material itself is still in good condition no rips? Guess no way to just swap the glass? Makes me wary about doing my own top now when the time comes:/

Btw, looks like you got a white s...was this the clean one from big island on craigs?

sewshulstudeez

Unfortunately, everyone said the glass cannot be changed out. Sucks because my top is still fairly brand new, so it's just gonna go to waste.

Lucky-R: Mine is Silverstone. I was very close to buying the white one on Big Island. I was about to fly up and look at it when a clean silverstone came up locally. Unfortunately, the fact that my silverstone had a brand new top with glass back window was a big deciding factor of me choosing this car.

I just met with Noah from Fred's Auto Top Shop a little while ago. He came recommended by a friend who owns an audio shop next door. Although he is significantly more than the other shops I looked at, I feel more confident with him installing it than the other shops.

bouford

i can vouch for noah as well. he'd done some interior work on my03.

sewshulstudeez

Awesome! Thanks Bouford.

I decided to upgrade a little and go with the canvas top instead of the vinyl one. Can't wait to get my S back on the road!

AP1EM1

I just did a top replacement myself with the help of one friend about 6 months ago. I ended up going with a robbins vinyl top with glass conversion. my 00' still had the factory plastic rear window. Over all it came out perfect really happy with it. Altho now i own a hardtop . Only took 11 hours strigt though. If i remember right it cost me around 550$ shiped to Oahu from robbins. All you need is a standard tool box and the only special tool you will need is a rivit gun. About 20$ at any hardwear store. The insturctions that came with mine because it was a plastic to glass conversion top told me to take out the two little pins right behind the wind diffuser thingy ma jig that holds down your factory soft top cover for when the top is down. It said something along the lines that these pins could get caught on the glass and force it to break. Could yours still be in? The install kit came with two little plugs to stick in where the pins go to hold the plastice together back there. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about this.

goy091

My GF and I did a softop install on my 06. Went with the Robbins canvas one. We took our time doing it and had to make a few runs to the hardware store for a rivet gun and extra rivets. Took us two full days. Maybe 20hrs worth of work. Could probably do it in less time but didn't want to screw anything up.

I think the top came out to ~$600 or so shipped to Hawaii.

sewshulstudeez

Thanks for your input goy091 and AP1EM1. Since my last post, I had changed my direction. The shop I was going through ended up not being able to order my top in a timely manner, so I cancelled that job, and decided to have my friend install it instead. He already has 2 soft top installs under his belt, both were converting 00 to 02 glass back tops. I just went to topsonline.com and ordered a Stayfast (Canvas) Robbins Top. It was only $543 for the non-heated glass back and will include the conversion straps to fit my 00. Shipping to Hawaii was $50, so less than $600 shipped total.

It should be here early next week. I'll try to take some pics of the install, as soon as our schedules sync up and can start the work.