Roof
Soft Top
With the soft-top up, the Eunos feels much more enclosed and there is a narrower view out the back. There isn't much room to wear a helmet for track days either and you have to take care when entering and exiting the car.
The beige soft-top that came with my car was beyond repair and all of the stitching had dissolved. I've fitted a brand new black vinyl soft-top.
Hard Top
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In September 2016, we popped into Retro & Modern Automotive Ltd (was Suffolk Mazda) to have a look at a hardtop they had for sale and came away with it fitted to the car. It was a good price and although it doesn't match the paint colour, I don't mind. It is perfect for wet track days and you can feel the car is stiffer with it on.
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At the rear of the hardtop are two catches that slide over two 'Frankenstein bolts'. I've got no idea why they are called this but they were missing from my car and had to be bought too.
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The hardtop has the same catches as the soft top at the front. My car doesn't have the rear/side latching plates fitted though but, these just bolt in and I bought a second-hand set on eBay for £20.
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Each latch bolt plate is held in place with two bolts with Torx T40 heads.
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This is what it looks like when you have a car that is not built to take a hard top. There are no latch plates for the rear latches to fix on to.
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With the hard top removed, you need to undo the screw holding on the cover plate (circled in red) and then pull the rubber seal away, to enable the plastic trim to be removed. This is held on with a plastic fixing on the inside (remove the central plastic pin) and some hidden push-fit connectors. It can then be pulled off but you need to remove the plastic parts around the seat belt.
The seat belt doesn't need to be touched but it is easier if you pop off the plastic cover on the top of the seat belt pillar.
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This photo shows the latch plates fitted using the two T40 Torx bolts. It also shows the seat belt pillar bolt removed but, you don't need to do this.
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With the latch plates installed, the hardtop can be properly clamped down. To align them (they have slots to allow some movement), we did them up and checked the positioning before tightening the Torx bolts. These clips further improve rigidity and reduce noise. The removed plastic seatbelt trim no longer fits and there is another version of these with cut-outs, to fit cars with hard tops installed.
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The hardtop has many advantages over a soft-top:
- It is much more waterproof than a soft-top and diverts water away from the drain holes and through the sills.
- It provides much more structurla rigidity to the chassis.
- It is quieter.
- It has a much better view through the expansive glass than the small slot window in the soft top.
- It has a heated element on the rear glass, assuming we connect it up.
It does add some weight but we have the option to remove the soft-top and frame to make a similar weight saving.
Seals
There is a 'header rail seal' that runs along the top of the windscreen and down the inside edges. On my car it had crumbled in places and this was replaced once the car came back from its respray.
