Samps

I had no parts to install this weekend and it rainned So with nothing to do I decided to fix a few lil problems I've been dealing with for awhile. First my roof has the notorious drip right where the roof, the widshield, and the door all meet on the drivers side. I have tried adjusting the weather stripping and adding some different types of sealant, but nothing worked. So I tried tightening up the latches a lil and the drip got worse! Well I figured if I tightened the latch and the drip got worse then maybe the latch was to tight to begin with; well I'll be damned! I loosened up the latches a good two full turns from where they were and the drip is GONE!!!!! Now I can drive my vert in the rain and not have a towel lay on my leg (I don't ever take the 7 out in the rain, but sometimes it rains after you're already out).

Next, I decided to attack that damn tear that most vert owners get right behind the drivers side door. It has grown to about a full inch long and has started to worry me when washing the car (due to water in the car making rust). So I went to Walmart and got a thimble, a good needle, and a spool of elastic thread like in spandex ($3.00). I then removed all of the interior panels in the inside trunk, unhooked the first three plastic snaps that hold the inside roof liner, and gained access to the tear from the inside. I ziptied up the liner to the defroster wire, and placed a utility light inside to help. I also removed the targa panel to save my back some pain. Then I threaded the needle with the streatchy thread using the double thread method (don't make a knot, just run the thread through and cut) I used about two feet of thread, which is 4 feet overall. So know I have a needle with two, two foot long threads hanging from it. I started from the outside and worked from front to back. You need to be careful that the two threads stay the same. It takes some patience but in the end you will be happy. It took me about an hour and a half. When I was finished I tested the roof. In the upright position the tear is sealed tight, and when I put the roof down the elastic thread expands a lil and the tear is still preaty damn tight. But when the top is down it's probably not rainning, and you probably are not washing the car. The real advantage of the elastic thread is that normal thread would break when the top was lowered due to the stress. The reason that area tears is due to the added tension when the roof tucks in below it. With a normal thread you would have to leave the stich loose so it would not break, thus destroying the whole point of doing it. Overall it was easy but time consuming. I took the car out in the pouring rain and not one drop from the roof anywhere. I was happy.