I wanted to know how should the rear of the OEM hard top look when resting on the black plastic trim that holds the soft top onto the sheetmetal of the car? I had my hard top install about 4 days ago and for some reason the HT on driver side the rubber gasket seem to be compress pretty tight when I latch it down, however on the passenger side the HT gasket does touch the black plastic trim (makes a seal) but is not compressed like on the driver side. When I lacth it the top moves down but the gap is larger on the passenger side.

How should it fit and align? Should the gasket be compressed (flat) or should it look slightly compress (still looking round). BTW the passenger side make noise when driving

Please help or show me pics of how it should look. I have done multiple searches with no help.

 

I'm not exactly sure where you are talking about but it sounds like you're having trouble with the area around the rear/side latches. Those posts on the hardtop can be adjusted up and down to loosen or tighten the fitment of the hardtop. Post some pictures of the problem area if you can.

 

Bottom line what I need to know is how compress should the rubber gasket/seal on the rear of the HT should be. When I stand behind the car I can see a wider gap between HT and trunk panel on the passenger side compared to the driver side. Also my wife's fingers and my fingers fit between the gap on the passenger side and not on the driver side.

I dont have the car at present time. I dropped it off at the dealer today so that they can work on the window seals on the soft top and HT due to water leaks.

Regarding fitment should I have a gap to were I fit my fingers between HT and trunk panel or small gap to were I can't get fingers in the gap? I dont want to damage the rubber weather seal strip in the rear of the HT

 

When i bought my hardtop, the guy said the gap is necessary because the car flexes and there is something sharp on the hardtop and if it touches your trunk then your paint will be scratched.
Thats what i was told because i asked about the gap too

 

mine has more gap on the passenger side too but i haven't tried to adjust the top at all yet. it should be even

 

When mine was installed, I had massive wind noise because the Honda tech obviously didn't read the mounting instructions and I could see daylight through the gap. Luckily they had given me a copy of them. There is a measurement that is supposed to be done when you adjust the gap. I don't remember the whole procedure off hand, but I do remember that I ended up having to raise the plate as high as it would go to meet the measurement specs.

 

can anyone find out the specs for the gap?

 

No need to follow specs. Some things I learnt going from an OEM hardtop to a Mugen.

The fitment on the Mugen is definitely better than the OEM.

To achieve a "perfect" fit, all 4 latches should lock in, lined up perfectly on both sides. It's quite hard to achieve this perfectly though.

Bolt the front latches down into the lock position.

Bolt the rear latches down into the lock position, then remove the 3 bolts/screws for the rear hinges on both sides. Align until desired, then bolt down both sizes simultaneously if possible using the same/estimate turns. Hardtop should not touch/rub or have any contact with the glass when it's up at anytime.

 

My OEM hardtop fits great now. But that is what I did to make my HT latch evenly on both sides. OP, if Honda just recently installed your HT, take it back to them and have them adjust it for you. If the HT is sitting higher on one side, that side will definitely leak. There should be a small gap between the HT glass and the piece between the softtop and trunk. But that's why there is a rubber seal that runs along the bottom of the glass. When u latch the rear down, it will pull the glass closer to the car causing the rubber to create that seal that you need.

 

When you install the hardtop, the rear "pins" that go into the catchers are attached to adjustable bolts/brackets. There are 5 bolts that can be loosened. This will adjust the gap between the hardtop and the car.

In the installation instructions, there is supposed to be a Xmm gap when the hardtop is not locked down. That way when the hardtop is locked down via the lever inside the car, the hardtop goes down a bit making the gap slightly less.

I don't remember exactly, but I believe it was around 9mm or so NOT locked down. Just play around with the 5 bolts on the back of the hardtop. You will have to remove the plastic trim on the sides if you haven't already.

Ooh, you're lucky. I found pics of my install.

Here is what the gap looks like just throwing on the hardtop. You'll see that it's all messed up.



Here are the 5 bolts you must loosen to adjust the gap when the hardtop is UNLATCHED.



Then go ahead and experiment and make sure this gap is okay. It's still not okay in this picture. It should be a certain mm apart when unlatched.



Good luck.