I thought I would chime in on this thread as I got brave enough to take this on by myself because of your pictures and comments.
The top was easy to remove with a knife. I managed to get all of the old nuts and washers off the retaining bars at the back of the body with out breaking any. I followed that up with a die on the tread and before installing the washers and nuts again, a light coating of antiseize. Be careful when removing the washers and nuts as they have a tendency to roll down the channel and fall into the large drain pipe. (sounds like a Plinko game when it does).
I drilled out the rivets easy enough. The hard part was wrapping the fabric around the side bars and installing the new rivets. This part was made easy with a nail to locate the holes and then lightly running a Dremel drill through to make room for the rivets. Came out perfect.
I bought my Hartz cloth top off of Ebay. It is called an Easy-top from Georgia. The top does not have the holes for the cables to run through. I looked and looked for holes, thought about making holes, then realized the top was modified. The cables run outside of the material, and go inside through a grommet. From there it goes inside the channel to the tensioners. I didn't have a problem threading the cables into the metal, but fishing the ends out proved to be a bit of a challenge. Some thin needle nose pliers resolved that issue. The top is installed and curing over night before I put tension on the top when I fasten it in place.
How do you adjust the tension of the tensioners? Is there a procedure?
The T-bolt doesn't exist on my soft top. There is a hole for what appears to be a small pop rivet to thread through.
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t145/alfadoctor/DSC_0001_edited.jpg
What I might consider is putting a nice stainless screw and upholstery grommet (like on the lower door panel) to give it a nice finish. The lower front corner chrome metal needs to be polished and new screws put in.
Tomorrow I will finish off the top by clamping the front down and gluing the bars and the other small items mentioned.
The top is very tight, tighter than I imagined. Not sure about the rear window yet if it will come out straight or have waves in it. Any one know of how to fix this? Might have to take to a restoration shop near by where I work and have them put their expertise to work if it doesn't resolve itself.
Thanks for the help. Now that I have done one, the next one is alot easier.
