New Porsche owner. I bought an incredible garaged 996, Nov 99 manufacture date, 2000 model year. The car had 9960 miles on it when purchased in April of this year. I put 10% of the cars total mileage on it driving it home from purchase. The convertible top is delaminating where the lower edge of the rear window is attached. The seller had told me this prior to the sale. It is, after all, an 11 year old convertible top.

I took it to the local shop that does convertible top repairs for the Porsche dealership. This place has a *very* good rep, and I have had some interior work done by them on other vehicles Ive owned, and they have always been very professional and IMHO very reasonably priced. Rod's Customs in Huntsville, Al, quoted me $1670 for a new top with soft window installed. The written quote doesnt have it on there, but I believe the chap told me that the hard window was $200 more, but they wouldnt do the wiring for the defroster on it. See http://rodscustom.com/ This aint an ad for Rod's Customs, its just info for anyone looking at having to replace a top in the North Alabama southern Middle Tennessee area. They also offered to remove the top, SEW the rear window back in (sew over the failed factory glue) and re-install for $600. I think both these prices seem very reasonable.

Anyway, being the cheap ***** that I am, I have attempted to re-glue the rear window using "automotive goop" (see http://www.eclecticproducts.com/Automotive.htm ) and it seems to be holding for the moment. What have I got to lose? Its not quite lined up correctly at the base of the window and is going to require an additional attempt, but the first attempt is holding, and I now have a mostly WX-proofed window.

I opened the top to where it is just a couple inches off the windshield, then reached under the rear deck lid and popped the cable loose on either side, which allows the rear window section of the top to be raised up and forward where you can get at the lower side of it. I placed a towel over the outside of the top, under the window where I will be applying glue so if any oozes out, it will get on the towel, not on the top. There is a flap that extends all the way across the inside rear edge of the top which is simply rubber-strip clipped to the hard edge of the top, and that must be gently pryed away all the way across. This exposes the attachment area between the window and the top itself. I applied the glue, then used 6" wooden door shims and spring clamps to apply pressure to both sides of the fabric while the glue cured overnight.

The next morning, the glue was cured, and required some fiddling to get the wooden pieces loose since some had oozed out onto the wood. But they came off, and I now have a top and window that had been reattached to one another.

Im going to take one more swing at it to try to further secure the window and make the outside fold line up correctly with the lower edge of the clear plastic.

Time will tell. HTH someone else.....

 

Sounds like a good solution. I have seen some DIY's for repairing the window, but I don't remember if they were here, Rennlist, or RennTech.

 

So you bought the 996 at 9960 miles and drove it 996 miles home?

 

Wow, I hadn't thought of that.

No, it wasn't quite 996 miles home, it was about 800.

 

check pipes and rubber parts. As you have seen from the top glue, they might have degraded. Relly, check them!

 

I opted to get a new window put in. Went with a dark tinted vinyl window. Really looks good. Shop in New jersey charged me $300 for the job. Could not pass that offer up.