The back end of my hardtop is pushed over a little too far towards the passenger side. There is a certain amount of play in the fastening hardware for the side catchers, but I have that adjusted all the way and it's still not right. I think the problem is actually in the front latches -- the passenger side latch is very tight and pulls that side forward while the driver's side latch is pretty loose.

Is there any adjustability in either the latches or the strikers? I didn't spot anything that was obvious.

 

The Helms manual covers adjustment of the hardtop in detail. The front latches can be shimmed for adjustment as well.

 

Yes, well I have the Helms manual and the hardtop installation instructions, and they don't cover this.

The shims are described as adjusting the roof up and down rather than fore and aft (which seems to be where I actually need adjustment). Do they do both?

I have maxed out the adjustibility of the side catchers already.

 

Mike, your HT may be warped. I've seen this before and I'm not sure anything can be done.
On a side note, when you installed the HT, did you adhere to the step where you were supposed to have the rear latches really lose, then snapping the front latches closed onto the windshield, before doing the tightening on the rear? If it was done with the rears already torqued down, this may have been the cause for any warpage that may have occured.

 

Yeah, I did.

Given the history of my car, it's actually more likely that my car is warped....

I really wouldn't care, actually, except the offset is big enough that it causes problems with the passenger side window and the HT weather seal.

 

I don't know whether to laugh or cry on your behalf.
If the car's warped, there's not a lot that can be done. However, having said that, if you are having issues to do with the window seal, look in the Helm manual in the section that deals with adjusting the window angle. This might be an option for you.

 

Well, I'm probably going to replace the beam that the roll hoops and seat belts (and on-topic) hardtop side catchers attach to with a welded-in roll bar structure. So I'll be able to tweak the rear catcher points a little more than I have already. But I still need to tweak the front latches, and it sounds like this may end up also being a custom job?

The car had a major track "incident" a few years ago, and it never seemed to be a problem with the soft top alignment, but of course the soft top can flex a bit more than the hard top -- since it's soft, and all that.

The Helms did say something about the window alignment possibly being adjusted. Since the hardtop is visibly out of alignment, I thought I would try to fix the problem rather than the symptom, but I guess that is still an option to consider.

 

Can you add a shim to the side catcher on the passenger side ? A spacer behind the side catcher might force the Top back toward the drivers side. Also, the weather strip has some adjustment available.

 

Mike, you might try giving Jeff at hardtopguy.com a call. He's installed lots of hard tops and may be able to tell you how much you can adjust the weather stripping on the HT. This might save you alot of extra customizing. good luck.