jaor.s2k

So just giving fellow s2k owners a heads up about using hardtop shims so that this doesn't happen to you...
this was from my build thread: https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/106...e/page__st__50





So my hardtop shims, from Gladman Performance, came in a few days ago and today was finally a sunny day to install these to get rid of the infamous hardtop whistle and to re-grease the hardtop seals.






Here you can see the hardtop sits just hair too high, which allows wind to seep in at freeway speeds.






Installation was easy and simple, I only installed 1 shim per striker and the hardtop sat a little lower on the seal and then I closed the door...
Window hit the hardtop and chipped some paint off.
You better believe i was pissed.









So after all that, took out all the trimming and took the shims off and had the strikers sit bare again.
I went to Home Depot to purchase a seal that would prevent the hardtop whistle and some velcro to prevent the metal bracket from rubbing on the fiberglass.







I took the hardtop off and installed the seal onto the top portion of the hardtop, which is simple since it uses self adhesion, and greased them as well (please excuse the blurry photos).









The seal worked like a charm, drove 90mph on the freeway and no whistle or wind noise coming from that part of the hardtop.
Lesson learned today, if your hardtop sits really close to your window without shims, just use a thin seal instead.
The seal is actually cheaper and easier to do than the shims. The seal cost me about $5 and the shims were $20.

I'm not bashing on their product, it did what it was supposed to do and works great (i drove, with the shims installed, on the freeway and worked fine, just didn't notice the paint chipping and what not till after i tested them out), but just letting everyone know that if your hardtop sits close to your window and you have the hardtop whistle, using a seal is another solution to it.

boyguan

I can't find the black seal only in brown and white. Where did you find it and what department plumbing or heating

murd0x

good idea but also you could have readjusted the window but it would be a bit more of a hassle

Chris_Lum

how thick are the Gladman shims? OEM shims I want to say are around 1mm each and you get 2-3 per side to use as necessary. Seems like the Gladman's are just too thick...maybe some finer tuning with thinner shims would work better.

robotvoice

Are you using the OEM hardtop strikers with your hardtop?

jaor.s2k

i can't remember exactly. it was with all the insulation stuff and of course all the window and door seals.

that's exactly why i didn't want to mess with the window, plus whenever i took the hardtop off and used the soft top, then i would have to readjust it again so that the window wouldn't leak for the soft top seal.


i'm pretty sure they're about 1mm thick. thinner may work to clear the hardtop, but may not be thick enough to stop the whistle. keep in mind, my hardtop is a replica and the drive side cleared with the shims, but the passenger side didn't. i know it's weird, but it is a rep, so i was never expecting perfect fitment.


as far as i know, i'm using the soft top strikers, unless the previous owner replaced them.

robotvoice

You definitely want to be using the hardtop strikers (they have little rubber inserts in them, google has pictures if you can't tell what's on you car right now). They are supposed to actually help with the wind noise you described and they also helped get rid of some of the rattling I was experiencing using the soft top strikers.

jaor.s2k

You definitely want to be using the hardtop strikers (they have little rubber inserts in them, google has pictures if you can't tell what's on you car right now). They are supposed to actually help with the wind noise you described and they also helped get rid of some of the rattling I was experiencing using the soft top strikers.
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i considered buying them, but i needed to buy other things, like new tires so i went and got shims instead. but i've used my soft top latches on my last hardtop and i didn't have wind noise problems or rattling problems

MikeekiM

Installed 1 shim on the passenger side, and 2 on the driver side... Neither of them caused the windows to clip the hardtop...but upon inspection, it comes pretty d*mn close!!!

z6htch

Glad you could fix the wind issue but the quality of those shims looks awful! I bet many people on this forum could make their own and they would look nicer, why isn't there a diy for this lol. Ray Charles himself drilled those holes