Well this morning while I was opening my soft top, a piece of the plastic around drivers side latch snapped off. I think it got caught on the fold of the actual top and broke. It doesn't seem to affect me latching the top since the latch itself is all metal. Does that plastic shroud really do much? I am thinking of trimming it off since now it rattles.

 

Most of the plastic is just trim - however one of the essential components inside the latch is plastic. I learned this the hard way when I used liquid wrench to lubricate the latches, and it dissolved that part

 

Sounds good, it was the outside trim piece that snapped (towards the bottom). Tonight I am gonna clean it up with my Dremel and double side tape it to the metal part so it won't rattle. It's not worth me going out and buying a new latch if it's just trim.