it's not all THAT bad...

Cyclone,

Thanks for the great writeup. I just finnished the install and it went great for the most part. I did not remove the roll bars and had a little trouble with the rear tray assembly, but I got it all buttoned up.

Robins top-

make sure you purchase a small ratchet that can accept a screw bit, harbor fright sells them for 9 bucks, grab a rivit gun with ammo while your there.

make sure you pull enough slack over thr fron bow so it covers the corners up. I used 3m 77 adhesive spray to make the little pockets that are not built on the top like the original. I attached the elestic straps per the instructions, which keep everything in line and it works great. I noticed that you did this differently on the 3rd and 4th bow. pull lots of slack and then tighten down the screws that hold the crome pieces on, this gives you the right overlap, the photo posted earlyer could use this and messing around with the crome peice, and it should look fine with the weather strips installed.

purchase an additional plastic grey plug from honda for the rear part as you will probably kill one like I did. By adding instructions in this tutorial and the original stuff you should be good to go.

I rivited the entire rain guard and top on the ground before to put it in. this made it musch easyer.

cut the old top off for gods sake like cyclone, it make its so much easier. Work from front to back on removal, and back to fron on install.

If you choose not to remove the role bars like me get ready for some hell with the rear tray, just a though and get ready to have some fun.

I enjoyed the install but will only do it again by being bribbed by beer next time :)

Wow, excellent and thorough writeup! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

-Colin

I have to replace my soft-top as mine was recently slashed by thieves when they stole my seats.

One question, would the Honda OEM softtop cloth be installed just as the Robbins one, or is the Robbins one easier to install? Just curious as to what the advantage is? Is the material more robust/durable on the Robbins one? I have a 2005 by the way.

Thanks, Clay.

I just finished installing an OEM top (obtained used) on my 2005 S. It installs exactly like the Robbins install except that you need to buy your own replacement elastic strips and rivets. The non OEM tops are nice because of the price and the OEM-like quality.

nice write up :thumbup:

I will be installing a Robbins top on my S sometime over the next month. This post will be very helpful. In fact I may have to hit some of you guys (Cyclon) up with questions if I run into any problems. Thanks.

Glad that everyone is getting use out of this thread. Feel free to paypal me $1 for the help :D J/K

Anyway, thought this thread needed an update. I revised the first post with a list of needed tools and extra parts you will need

Also, as has been noticed by others, the retrofit straps have been updated by robbins. It is also recommended to rivet those to the back of the elastic instead of to the side of it.

I have added a link to hardware that will make attaching the rear rain gutter a snap.

Also, I've updated how to use the Robbins plugs to fill the leftover holes from the top cover studs that were removed from the roll hoops.

A lot of you all that attempt this install PM me with questions. Feel free to ask anytime as I'm always glad to help. I can't even count how many tops I've installed by now on customers cars. The last install actually took me 2.5 hours on a 2003 with an OEM top replacement. I did have one helper though :D

As for a review on OEM versus Robbins, if you have to do it over and over again, the OEM top is much nicer to install. Material wise, they're both identical. I feel that the OEM one has that last bit of perfection though that might be worth the extra $150 or so.

I wish i had read the update on sandwiching the straps, it helps alot since the robbins kit doesn't come with enough rivets... otherwise everything went really well. Thanks for the write up! we pretty much only used this one

That was an interesting read.