Fantastic job!

 

Thanks again for such a comprehensive review of this issue. If you had done this a year ago, I'd likely still have my cab, as one of the things I didn't like was the higher noise level on long freeway drives.

All you need now is a nice electric hoist to deal with removing and installing the top on the car. If you go to Rennlist forum, Edgy01 has a great one he could tell you about. I think it may run around $700 or $800, but is very slick.

 

Guys, thanks for all the help as I lurked about for a while and have now, almost successfully completed this project. I have a couple of questions to see if anyone has encountered. I put a bayonnet style 2003 996 top on my 2008 997.1 after installing the parts with your help. Two things I've noticed is that the drivers' side goes in hard and is very sticky coming back out. IN fact, I've had trouble getting hte top off. Has anyone encountered this? Do ineed to grease it or something?

It also does not seem to sit all the way down so that I can see part of the bayonnets and there seems to be an exposed lip around the entire back of the hardtop. Is this correct?

My other question is whether the softtop knows that the hardtop is on when I operate the defroster or will my folded softop come out looking like a piecee of toast in the spring?

Thanks for your help.

 

I'm about to perform this same mod myself so I do not speak from experience but from what I have read on multiple threads on this topic.

As far as the bayonet sticking and/or seating hard-other forums recommend that you loosen the 3 bolts that hold the bracket that holds the bayonet to the top. Set the top in to place and turn the bayonet connectors to tighten them down. Then slowly tighten the 3 bolts on each bayonet bracket to tighten them up equally. This way you are essentially aligning the bayonet pins with the brackets on the car, then tightening them into place.

I'm interested too about the response on the rear window defroster. I suspect this will not be an issue and that when the bayonet pin makes contact with the heater curcuit it probably interrupts the voltage to the soft top window. There may also be a position switch on the soft top that turns off the window heat when the top is lowered since it's possible to accidentally turn on the rear window heat when the top is lowered. Porsche would be paying a lot of warranty claims for damaged tops if they didn't address this in their design.

 

The top is designed to sit above the body of the car to eliminate damage painted surfaces below it. Only the rubber seals are supposed to touch the body of the car. There is a TSB on RennTech that states the distance the top is designed to sit above all areas of the body of the car that the top covers. There is even special measuring tool for this that the dealer uses to make the adjustment. I used a wooden shim measured to be as close as possible to the spec, or just above it, and it worked fine. Adjustments are made to the pins themselves to raise and lower the top. Can be a tedious process but not difficult and the point is to make sure the top doesn't rub or contact the surface of the body of the car.

As for the defoster, not sure what controls this but I have not had any issues with both of them coming on at the same time after three seasons of use. The process of installing and locking down the hard top disables the defroster on the soft top when the connection built into the driver side pin lock is activated.

 

looks great !

i thought about this as well.. but was unsure about how the interior will look since i have cocoa interior.

what color is ur interior and what is the color of the hardtop interior ?

pics from inside ?

thx !

 

My cars interiors is black. The interior of the top is a light to medium grey. Doesn't clash with the black and actually kind of lightens up the interior a little when it's on so I'm ok with how it looks. As for pics, top's in the basement. Will try and get some decent pics of it to show you but not sure how it will show up. As for changing the color, the interior pieces are prohibitively expensive so your best bet would be to A) live with whatever color the top came with (which if black would work fine) or B) use a good quality vinyl paint to change it to a more agreeable color. Only issue would be changing the head liner color which matches the rest of the interior of the top, I think ( will check that out and let you know for sure ) Not sure if they make a spray on fabric paint/stain but I bet if you Google it they do.

 

Dadio, or anyone else,

I just picked up my 996 hardtop I bought used for $400. It's black/black and looks like new inside & out. One question: It only has one of those small round rubber cushions on the bottom of it.

I saw where some of the guys had issues with paint damage from over tightening the tops down. But I thought I also read the round rubber cushions are what provide that separation and I thought I read there were 3 of them.

Can someone confirm how many of those round cushions there are supposed to be? And if possible describe where they are located? I've also looked through the PET pages and I can't find a part number for these cushions if anyone can help on that one. TIA

 

There are 2 on my top , located on either side near the locking pins. I looked for one in the center of the top near the back window, ( to confirm if there were 3 or not ) but there isn't one there nor does there appear that there ever was.

While I believe the seals on the underside of the top are the only thing that comes in contact with the body of the car when the top is mounted, you're going to want to source another rubber cushion before mounting the top and driving the car just to be on the safe side as I don't suppose Porsche would have put them on the top if they didn't serve a purpose.

 

[quote=Dadio;3323489]There are 2 on my top , located on either side near the locking pins.quote]

Thanks. Thats where mine is, must have fallen off on the other side though.

Can anyone help with the part number for this? I've looked through the PET pages and can't find anything like this.