Hi guys, first of all thank you for the wealth of knowledge available on this forum, I’ve had tons of help over the years but I’ve never actually made a post myself yet.

I’m swapping my hardtop with someone this weekend. I’m also swapping the rear catcher brackets over to their car, with their original bolts coming back my way.

I’ve stripped the car down and got the brackets in view. Now, every thread I’ve seen about oem hardtop fitting mentions there’s a metal piece around the bracket you need to bend with the contour of the cars lines, this is to stop the soft top brackets underneath from misaligning when you remove the catchers, causing lots more work when you want to refit your bolts.

I can’t for the life of me figure out which part it is. All images from past threads are broken, and I can’t find anyone doing it on YouTube.

ive attached a photo if anyone might be able to point out which part it is?

 

It should be the gusset plate directly behind the rear catchers. It’s bent out to allow the rear catchers to install flush to the car.

here is an excerpt I took from the hardtop fitting manual.

 

fab, thanks for sending me that mate. Based on this, I assume there’s nothing to bend on my car which the brackets will be removed from? I just want to be sure nothings going to drop out of line underneath. Thanks again

 

yeah you’ll be fine. Remove the bracket and replace the bolts. The soft top bracket has a few more bolts underneath and in back that keeps it in place.