Alright I’m in the middle of a top replacement, and I have a few questions. Some background: I have the M+T top and headliner and I’ve just removed the old top and headliner, the top had a sticker on the inside saying it was replaced in 2004. The top came with a guide but it’s kinda confusing. And I’ve been reading threads for quite a while and come up with no awnser.

1: The guide says to remove the insulator pad and window frame just to put them right back on, is there any reason to remove them?

2: The old headliner had a rubber thing on it that hooked on up front(see pic), the new one just has a bunch of extra. Am I supposed to sew the rubber thing on the other one or does it get glued on/go under the holding strip for the top?

3: Some of the threads mentioned a metal strip at the base. Both the new and old have plastic strips sewn in. Is this enough or did the last guy screw up too?

4: Am I supposed to install the top then cut the window hole later? The guide doesn’t mention but a few threads were saying to do so.

I’m trying to make a video of all this so there can be a guide out there because there’s like no vids or even pictures I can find apart from Mazda diagrams.

Thanks in advance for any help!

The rubber part on the old headliner

The backside of the headliner came with these lines on it, I’m assuming I need to cut around the squares and circles and the other line lines up with the

Im trying to do this myself because the car is not road legal yet and the nearest shop is probably a while away not to mention one that would do this top.

 

1: The guide says to remove the insulator pad and window frame just to put them right back on, is there any reason to remove them?
If they are in good shape, there is no reason to remove them

2: The old headliner had a rubber thing on it that hooked on up front(see pic), the new one just has a bunch of extra. Am I supposed to sew the rubber thing on the other one or does it get glued on/go under the holding strip for the top?
I did not replace my interior liner but I suspect you need to sew/ staple the rubber "j" lip to the new headliner along the white dots on the headliner.

3: Some of the threads mentioned a metal strip at the base. Both the new and old have plastic strips sewn in. Is this enough or did the last guy screw up too?
To my knowledge, the interior liner has a plastic strip at the bottom to attached it to the interior, not metal. The outer cover has a metal strip in the top where is bolts to the body

4: Am I supposed to install the top then cut the window hole later? The guide doesn’t mention but a few threads were saying to do so.
If you are talking about the out top, yes you install the the top, then cut out the window. Check out this link. Mazdaspeeders FC convertible top replacement procedure - AusRotary

 

Thank you very much, the weather is getting my better really quickly