Pagoda SL Group
W113 Pagoda SL Group => Body, interior, paint, chrome, and cosmetic items => Topic started by: bowdie on September 21, 2010, 08:39:17
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Hi,
I'm looking to purchase my first pagoda. I've found a decent example and i'm planning to arrange a pre-purchase inspection shortly.
Q. The rear of the soft top did not seem to close down flush with the body at the corners (dog ears). The Seller claimed that this was a result of the soft top being stored for a long period of time and this should return to normal (flush position) once the soft top is used regularly again.
Does this sound correct? Or is this a more serious problem to fix?
Thanks,
Bowdie.
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Hello Bowdie and welcome to the group.
To answer your question, yes, it is a fairly common problem.
It is the result of the bottom corners not being tucked in properly during lowering of the soft top into the compartment.
This has been discussed here before and a quick search revealed this thread:
http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=3913.0
Hope it helps.
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He knows his car....
There's a trick or two here
One is to put some plastic "sheeting" - I use PET (cola) bottles cut lengthways - over the rubber by the hinge on each side to stop the rubber getting caught by the canvas tearing. It eases the up and down and stops the well rubbers tearing or pulling out. Once down, the canvas folds can be well tucked into the well and the bits of plastic stored in the well too. It's common for the hood to have a small tear near the hinge right on it's lip. Plastic will help stop this
The rear corners of the roof where it sits on the trunk/boot tend to curl up for the reason he says. It can be corrected. Once the roof is down - and if you have smallish hands this is easier - reach down to the rim of the soft-top where the curl is "up" and tuck that under the rim of the frame. Before long, the curl is no longer up but is able to sit flush as it should. My hands are not tiny and I can manage this but if you do the "tucking" before finally bedding the roof in the well, you have a tad more room
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Actually the "tucking" worked wonders - in fact so well, that my problem is now the exact opposite - the corners now curl too much inwards, so now I only "tuck" half of the times I fold the soft top away to even out things... :-)
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Thanks All. Very helpful.
Offer on car accepted, subject to inspection.
Bowdie.
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Tucking under worked a treat. Thanks.