I'm in the process of changing over my interior from tan/wood to black/carbon-fiber, and would like to follow up with the convertible top, but haven't been able to find any comprehensive instructions on removing or replacing the top. Has anyone had experience with in this?

 

I assume you want to have a black top. This is one job that I always read is best done by professionals, regardless of the car model. Considering how difficult Jag made it to do some jobs, I can't believe doing the top would be an exception. If you do decide to do it, I'm sure the Forum would love to see a writeup with photos. Best of luck!

 

I've seen some very good dye jobs, if the tops in good shape you might want to dye it instead.

 

Doing a top requires the ability to judge just the right tension. Too tight and and you will get premature failure and operating problems, too loose and it will be cosmetically unsightly. You also need to be able to compensate for fabric stretch over time. This is something that comes with experience doing convertible tops. That is why this is one of the few jobs I would hire a (convertible top) professional for.

 

Is this something anyone has done? I had brushed off the idea of dying early on, not wanting to mess up the surrounding paint, or get an uneven coloration. However, if I could get a little direction from someone with a little knowledge, I'd be up for giving it a shot.

 

I have no first hand experience but see this link below from a guy on the Miata forum..

[Soft top] Operation: Bye-Bye Orange Top...maybe - MX-5 Miata Forum

 

I re-dyed mine which was tan from the factory, to brown. It isn't that difficult, but you MUST mask the car, as splatter does occur. Also, drips will run down the rain gutters and pathways to underneath the car and drip, and possibly clog the drains, beware of this. I feel the look just after dyeing was fair, not great, but it faded much quicker than I expected, and I don't leave my car outside, and I am sure it would have been worse if I had. Overall, initially the dye was fairly even with darker areas where gravity pooled the dye. 1 Year later, I had the top replaced. Total cost to replace with a Robbins top (parts and labor) was $1250. Had I known the cost was this low, I would have replaced initially and not bothered to dye. Regardless, I would not re-dye knowing what I know now. With a new top, the car looks great, but with the old top after the re-dye, the car looked better than before the dye job, but still looked like a car where the top needed to be replaced.

BTW, I posted some pics after I dyed the top, you should be able to find them here on the forum if you want to see my results.