I almost gave up trying to put these on, took me about 40 minutes. After cutting the oem ones, I pretty much had no choice but to move forward. (unless the soft top would've worked without any straps?) From what I can tell, modifry's straps were about 3 inches shorter than oem, unless mines were really worn/stretched over the years. I could BARELY get the strap to reach the rivets for the front pillar let alone loop it out at the end to complete the overlap. But someone how I managed. Passenger side couldn't be done the same way. Not enough slack, so I had to use a much more difficult method to catch the rivets and overlap it. In the end, top goes fully down now, like it use to back in 2001. But when raising it back up, the top stops 4" from completion. Not even close enough for the latches to hook. Lowered it and raised it again, same thing. So instead, I just stood out the car and pushed it down with a little weight enough for the hooks to latch on and snap into place. Anyone else had this much difficulty? Perhaps the straps I received were a bit too short? Btw, I followed the instructions and did the 1½ loop.

 

installed on a friend's car about a month ago - worked exactly per instructions.

 

FYI, you can still put the top down if you wish. just push that bar back as you press the roof switch.

as for your 4inch gap, i would leave the top latched on for a while and let the straps stretch out a bit.

 

I put some on mine a month ago, no problems, they're tight, but they don't cause any issues. They wrapped around the rear bar more than 360 degrees, but they didn't wrap completely around the front bar. I'll take a picture when I get home and post it on here so you can see. Maybe you wrapped it around too many times, I dono. Why not take one off, measure how long it is, and contact Modifry with the info? He might send you another set for free.

 

It took me a little while to get the first one, but after I got it the other was easy. For mine I had to really stretch it out, but the problem I ran into was trying to get the metal piece between the top and the bar, that took a bit of work to get it through.

 

The straps are already installed as you can see. Didn't double loop the bars. I'm just curious if others had a difficult time like I did. And yea I planned on living the top on for a while a let the new straps stretch a bit. Not like I'd be cruising in 9 degree weather.

 

I bought the same type of strap material from Hobby Lobby and made my own. Cost me like 7 bucks and achieved the same thing. Sounds to me like the straps you got were just a bit too short? My top stops about 1 inch short but usually the hooks can still engage and I can clamp it down without having to pull the top down by the handle.

 

Inatalled mine today easy and work as described my top opens fully now as opposed to the pic above

 

Got mine in and they work great...

 

Mine were a little hard to get on but I did get them to go around the bar and the top does close all the way.