*RESOLVED*
I just bought an OEM hardtop from a fellow S2KI member and am having some issues with fitment. I have a 2001 AP1, all stock.

The guy I bought it from helped with the installation and everything seemed to install fine, we had to leave 1 bolt out of the passenger-side rear catcher, but it is perfectly tight anyways with no play. Upon installing the hardtop there was a bit of a gap on the driver-side window that was allowing quite a bit of wind noise. I noticed that the driver-side latch is much tighter than the passenger-side as well(almost too tight). Also, when putting the top on, the guide pins will not go in simultaneously. I have to put one pin in and then nudge the other side of the top inward to put that pin in.

I have now bought hardtop strikers from Honda to see if that would fix the problem. Now when the top is on with both pins in the holes, the passenger-side latch will not even connect. If I hook the latches on before putting the guide pins in, the pins will then not go into the holes.

I know that you can adjust the pins on the rear of the top, but I don't think they can be adjusted in a way that would fix this issue(off rotated?). Also, I'm not sure if the front latches can be adjusted, but I do know they can have shims sometimes? I have tried to take these off to see under them, but it appears that the screw on the latch towards the front of the car may be loctited as I cannot even get it to budge and am afraid of stripping at this point.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and anyone living in the Kansas City area is welcome to come over and have a look
Thanks guys!

 

I think your issue maybe with the 2 rear catches that are mounted to the car. Did you bend the tabs on the car before installing the catches? Is the bolt you did not install because it's missing or because you could not install it?

 

The tabs were bent in before bolting on. The bolt is missing because it would not go in with the other 3 bolts in. We could get it to have 2 on the top and the 1 bottom missing 1 on the top, or with 3 on the top in and the one on the bottom missing, we went with the 3 on the top. I should mention that the guide pin is about .5 inch off from being put in with the hardtop catchers currently, so if it is the rear catchers, they are way off. It is still possible, of course.

 

For reference, here are some shots of the top when everything is latched up:

Images Removed

Kind of hard to see in photos, but passenger-side is flush while driver-side is about .5 inches up. Could it be that the top is sitting too far forward?

 

Loosen all other bolts and put the missing one in. If it doesn't work that way then you need to punch in the 'lip' a little more. All of the bolts should line up easily.

 

I agree, all bolts should line up without issue. Since you can not line up the one bolt it is 99% the cause of the improper line up. As suggested, loosen everything and try again.

 

are you guys talking about these bolts not lining up????

if so I have the same damn problem and only have 2 of them, I cant figure it out for the life of me. Been rolling around this way for 2 years.

 

^^Yes.

Did you tighten down the bolts one by one or tried to attach them all loosely at the same time?

When you hold the side catcher against the chassis, does it sit flush with the body or does it stick outwards? If it doesn't sit flush against the body, you need to punch in the 'lip' a little more.

 

Yes i attached them loosely and tried. My problem was when there is no bolts in there like the photo shown,...the circled in red holes do not line up.. only 50% of the hole the bolt needs to go through is visable. I tried moving it, with no luck.
I do remember when I was getting ready to install everything the first time and i removed a bolt, cant remember which one now, but it was the last one to come out and the weight of the black piece was weighing down on it making it super hard to get out

 

Yes i attached them loosely and tried, and the catcher does fit flush. My problem was when there is no bolts in there like the photo shown,...the circled in red holes do not line up.. only 50% of the hole the bolt needs to go through is visable. I tried moving it, with no luck.
I do remember when I was getting ready to install everything the first time and i removed a bolt, cant remember which one now, but it was the last one to come out and the weight of the black piece was weighing down on it making it super hard to get out