Soft Top Front Seal

[pjf]

My soft top is noisy because it does not properly form a seal with the weatherstrip above the windshield. The front of the soft top is clipped to a metal frame that can fold back to open the top. When closed, the frame sits firmly on the center of the weatherstrip but there are gaps at the corners that allows the wind to blow through.

I bent the frame at the center and although it sealed better at the corners, the wind came through the center. I’ve recently purchased a new frame and weatherstrip but there is still a gap at one of the corners.

(1) Is there a way to safely bend the frame to seal better?
(2) Is there a way to adjust the locking clips to pull the corners down more?

[deardsy]

Had exactly the same thing, I think it's all part of owning a soft top!

I also tried bending the frame, sorta helped but not completely. Try getting hold of a small strip of foam, like a wetsuit type, then glue it on top of your front seal, seemed to do the job well on mine.

[pjf]

If I can't fix this soft top front seal problem, then I'm going to get a 2-section hardtop. The front hardtop section is removable. Will the hardtop have the same problem with the front seal?

[captchee]

What I did to fix mine was to fold the top back . Take some black silicon and run a heavy bead across the front, right where the top is supposed to seal .
I then took a piece of kitchen plastic wrap and using 1 piece covered the edge of the top and frame. This will keep the silicone from sticking to the top .
Now one thing I did was not clamp the top down . I just set it back down with alittle weight across the top edge .
After letting that set over night . I came back , took the plastic wrap off and clamped the top down .
No more leaks , no more air coming through and you cant see the silicone at all .. If you do get to much and it squishes out , it can be simply trimmed after dry with a razor knife .

Now another thing I have done but not on Suzuki’s is to use an air bladder .
I have done that a number of times of newer 2000 + fords.
For some reasons the doors just will not seal or stay sealed . Maybe its just bad foam rubber used in the seals or the doors flex to much .
Basically what using a bladder entails is this .
If you seal is a hollow core seal , like the ford door seals are . What you do is tale a piece of soft surgical tubing and feed it up through the seal , tell it comes out the other end .
You then tie off that end . Then pull the tubing back into the seal about 2 inches then take you a can of compressed air , fill the tube just so it starts to stretch.. DON’T USE AN AIR COMPESSOR . You will blow the seal right up and off the door before you know what happened .
Once the tubing has started to swell. Pinch it and then tie the end and tuck it back up in the seal .
What this does is add little more rigidity to the seal and it will now seal much better .

[pjf]

To summarize, my soft top header does not close completely and leaves a small gap above the left corner. This gap creates wind noise and allows the wind to blow into the cab. I appreciate captchee’s suggestion above to “fatten” the seal but I think I have a solution that works equally well: .

In the photo, you can see a plastic shim that I added to the front latch of the soft top. It is 3/16th of an inch thick and allows the latch to close the soft top header by an additional 3/16th of an inch. The shim is necessary because the latch is already adjusted for maximum closure.

I purchased slightly longer bolts for the latch from the local Ace Hardware store. The original bolts are 20mm long. The new bolts are 25mm long. The bolts are designated as "M6" in size. In other words, the shank is nominally 6mm in diameter with a pitch of 1.0mm per thread.

I drew a diagram of the shim and had the local plastics shop fabricate it on its CNC machine. The shop fabricated 3 sets of shims from clear polycarbonate sheets of different thicknesses: 1/8”, 3/16” and ¼”. The 3/16”-thick shim seems to work best. My expenses were about $40 to setup the CNC machine plus $5 for each polycarbonate sheet. Polycarbonate was chosen because it is flexible enough to withstand greater sheer and compression without cracking.

The only downside is that my sun visor cannot fold up completely. It hits the latch before it can fold up against the roof of the cab. A small price to pay.

If anyone is interested, I can post the plans so you can have your local plastics shop fabricate the shims for you.

[rudar]

If this is the seal that goes around the rim of the opening in the roof, I had similar problems with the hard-top I bought. It was loose enough that the clips shook open, and then half my roof flew off. That was fun. I ended up ordering a fatter seal from jc whitney, which helps everything clamp down real good...

[Sheermadnesskick]

I do have the same problem on my 90 Kick with the front part of my two piece hard top (made by Rally) as well. The soft top that I use in the summer seals very well there (no leaks). -Ed

[pjf]

The use of a thicker weatherstrip is certainly an excellent way to seal the front of a soft top. For those interested in applying a shim to the latch, here is the plan:
.

[rudar]

Here's the seal mine came with, and the new, fatter seal:

I then re-used the original seal at the front and side edges of the hard-top, to cut down on wind noise a bit:

While I was at it, I used some scraps of heavy PVC fabric and a $0.99 pound-in snap to make back-up straps for the roof, just in case it ever shakes loose again:

The snaps attach to the snaps on the inside of the roll-bar, that used to serve to hold the soft-top bundled up when folded back. Should let me pull over and rescue the roof, should the front clips ever come loose again. Though in the 6 months since this, it hasn't ever happened.

[pjf]

Rudar,
Do you have the JC Whitney part number for your weatherstrip?