In the course of doing a top installation, I've gotten distracted into
various other things (surprise) and a few problems have arisen that I
hope the collective net wisdom can help me with.
First, I decided to sand off and repaint the convertible top frame as
long as I was replacing the top. Removing the frame appeared to be
simply a matter of drawing three bolts on each side of the car where
the frame mounts just behind the seats. Unfortunately, drawing the
first bolt brought to my ear the unhappy sound of a nut rattling down
inside the car body. Oops. It appears that the bolts attaching the
top frame to the car are somehow nutted inside the car body. So right
now the frame is loosely but still workably attached to the car. What
do I do now? What is the procedure for reattaching the top frame to
the car? I can't see any easy way to work inside the car body where
the frame attaches, so I must say I'm puzzled. (I'm puzzled by the
whole thing, frankly. In addition to the top, I've got a sort of half
cover and bar that obviously fits over the back shelf area. Like a
half-tonneau. However, this won't go on unless the top can somehow
(1) be folded down farther than it will go on my car or, (2) removed.
Since removing it seems to be a bad thing, and it doesn't fold down
far enough, what's going on here?)
Second puzzle is the antenna (aerial). I'd like to replace mine,
since it is broken off. The puzzle here is how to get to the
underside of the body panel where the antenna mounts. In this case,
it appears that there's a splash panel inside the right front wheel
arch that can be removed (three nuts and a long rubber grommet). True
or false? After my experience with the dropping nuts on the top frame
I'm not inclined to unwind these nuts blindly...
Thanks again for all your help.
-- Scott T.
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