I’m researching this for a friend. We got a Saab mid-90s model convertible with a soft top. The window on the rear has started slipping into the soft top material, exposing a little 1/2 inch or so space along the top of the rear window (where the window used to meet the soft-top). The dealer says there’s no way to repair this, no glue that can be used to remount the glass back in its original space. Something about it being heat-bonded at the factory, and anybody’s who tried to fix it has failed miserably. IOW, we need a completely new top–for $1200–to fix what seems to be a rather minor problem.
So, is there a way to fix this problem, or is the dealer right?
Researching this for “a friend?” Of course you are.
Dealer’s probably right. Check with an autobody shop to get their angle. Se if there’s a u-pull-it junk yard nearby that you can go to and just snag a good one off a wrecked car–lot less than $1,200.
Either because they know something we don’t know, or they don’t know what we know.
Gluing cloth to cloth is easy. Gluing a solid non-porous object of some weight to cloth, so that it stays glued through the flexion, vibration, and temperature extremes that a car subjects it to is quite another thing.
While some body shops may deal with this, it is in the bailiwick of auto upholstery shops.
Installing a convertible top, new or used, is (in my limited experience) a first-rate pain the butt (which is why I limited my experience) without knowledge of the proper adjustments and access to certain special tools/equipment.
You can also find remotes for cars that are for sale on E bay without the codes to be able to install them in the car. People buy them and then find out they cannot be installed. :smack:
IMHO Gary T nailed this one. Replacing soft tops is a cast iron bitch, and replacing a glass might well be impossible. On Volvo convertible’s it is anyway.
There might be one way out, that will be cheaper than a total top replacement. An auto upholstery shop could install a ising glass (sp?) glass rear window. In othe words a clear flexible plastic rear window, like what convertible tops used to have in them before solid glass windows became possible. To install one would require the removal of the top, so that the new window could be sown in. Also I should note that a plastic widow will yellow and scratch with time. About 3 years is all they are good for in a sunny climate.
