Convertible top issues !! - Fixed

Fun GT

Fun GT

Mustang Enthusiast
Well as some of you already know during the Fall Run I ended up with roof issues. Now these issues are turning into more of nightmare than anything else and I am looking at you guys to see if any of you could point me to someone that knows his way around these convertibles. Just to explain my problem a bit this is what happened. Friday night when I pulled at the hotel I parked and began to put the roof up and once half way up noticed that it was all out of whack being that one side was up and not the other. So thanks to Gerry's hospitality and handy work we found that a bracket on the right hand side mechanism had broken off so we managed to get the roof back up manually and it stayed there till this morning when I found someone to take a look at it. Also I read up on this issue and it is a common problem where Ford even came out with a TSB on it but it is very expensive to fix.... so in comes an easy solution where many guys have welded that bracket with success and the repairs looked pretty strait forward but not in my case, tried this 3 times and bracket broke off every time. So it would seem now that my roof is out of alignment somewhere and it causes it to catch on the same side of the broken piece when putting it up and this stress causes the bracket to break off again and again. Also when roof all the way up the two top pieces where the windows end up sitting in (ones that bend when putting roof up and down) will not straiten up all the way, they just stay in an V type position so they must be forced manually in their position... something is really not right with this thing. Fella who did the work for me this morning now says that I need a new rack in order to fix my problem and if I replace the rack I now need to replace the vinyl top too and so on and so on $$$$ saying it could cost me close to 10 grand when all done so not really willing to shed out that kind of cash yet !! Just check in with Ford today to see how much a replacement rack would cost and price on this is 5600.00 plus tax (of course) but then he tells me that it wouldn't cost me that much so I ask how much then?? and so he says nothing as they don't make them anymore,,,,,, eh??? See where I am going with this Nightmare thing?? there must be someone somewhere that works and can fix friggin' Convertible Roofs?? after all they are not that rare, I see many of them on the road !! So folks any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated here, I haven't given up yet but man I am frustrated to say the lease !!!
 
Fun GT;n17494 said:
Well as some of you already know during the Fall Run I ended up with roof issues. Now these issues are turning into more of nightmare than anything else and I am looking at you guys to see if any of you could point me to someone that knows his way around these convertibles. Just to explain my problem a bit this is what happened. Friday night when I pulled at the hotel I parked and began to put the roof up and once half way up noticed that it was all out of whack being that one side was up and not the other. So thanks to Gerry's hospitality and handy work we found that a bracket on the right hand side mechanism had broken off so we managed to get the roof back up manually and it stayed there till this morning when I found someone to take a look at it. Also I read up on this issue and it is a common problem where Ford even came out with a TSB on it but it is very expensive to fix.... so in comes an easy solution where many guys have welded that bracket with success and the repairs looked pretty strait forward but not in my case, tried this 3 times and bracket broke off every time. So it would seem now that my roof is out of alignment somewhere and it causes it to catch on the same side of the broken piece when putting it up and this stress causes the bracket to break off again and again. Also when roof all the way up the two top pieces where the windows end up sitting in (ones that bend when putting roof up and down) will not straiten up all the way, they just stay in an V type position so they must be forced manually in their position... something is really not right with this thing. Fella who did the work for me this morning now says that I need a new rack in order to fix my problem and if I replace the rack I now need to replace the vinyl top too and so on and so on $$$$ saying it could cost me close to 10 grand when all done so not really willing to shed out that kind of cash yet !! Just check in with Ford today to see how much a replacement rack would cost and price on this is 5600.00 plus tax (of course) but then he tells me that it wouldn't cost me that much so I ask how much then?? and so he says nothing as they don't make them anymore,,,,,, eh??? See where I am going with this Nightmare thing?? there must be someone somewhere that works and can fix friggin' Convertible Roofs?? after all they are not that rare, I see many of them on the road !! So folks any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated here, I haven't given up yet but man I am frustrated to say the lease !!!
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I don't know anyone directly, but I know lots of car guys, let me ask around, see what I can find out.
 
Now that sucks big time Roger. I also cannot imagine you need to shell out that type of coin right now. Let me look around as well. I heard there is a guy around Moncton that is good with tops off of mountain road or something. Let me see if I can find out who it is.
 
Roger have you heard of a guy by the name Vicky Jean from Lameque? I was talking to Elide Max's father and he says he is pretty good at this type of stuff. I am working on getting his info
 
I've already been to Trinity and they won't even think about touching it.
B&J upholstery on Shediac road is the one that tried his best. Real nice fella that worked on it and he did try very hard to trouble shoot it but his weld didn't hold up to the stress. Something causes it to stick on the right side when going up and also holds the top bars down in V shape but what puzzles me is that it aligns up strait after you get it about half way up and it hits the two latches dead on when you put it all the way up. Now I'm wondering if the two tension cables would not have anything to do with this as I can't really find any info. on if they would affect or stop these two bars from straitening out. It's quite the problem let me tell you !!
 
No haven't heard of him but Max (ex 4 cyl turbo to now new V-8 power, lol) contacted someone down that area that he thought would know something about this stuff but it turned out to be a dead end so wondering if it isn't the same guy ??
But I'll surely give him a shout !! Thanks for the info. Charlie, appreciate it ...
 
Yeah BJ I heard was good but did not think they did to that extent. Too bad they could not get it. See below may be worth a shot
 
Yeh that would be great. Someone must know how to work on these things after all guys build cars from the bottom up so I just need someone that does the up part I guess.....I have the broken bracket with me so I'm looking at finding someone who can fabricate a new one or even my daughter has a friend that just won a Canadian award in a welding competition so we are trying to get a hold of him to see if he can weld it in a different way as so it is stronger. Damn problem, if it would be a transmission issue well you go to a garage or transmission shop but these friggin' roofs appear to have been built on Mars along with their technicians ....lol
 
Do you think repairing the bracket will work?I know on Edinburgh there is a company by the name of Gray's welding and machining that will weld or copy pretty well anything. Fixed a rare piece for us a few years back and copied it to a third with the c and c.
 
Roger. I heard there is a guy here in Moncton by the name of Adam that works out of the same building as Dynamic Towing where they repair the cars. He rents a spot Or something. I was told that if you call dynamic they should track him down. I will also pm you another number of a guy.
 
I'm sure the bent bracket on the drivers side was the result of the passenger side link failure.

fixing the passenger link without getting the drivers side straightened would put extra strain on the repair
Have you tried an auto salvage for a used frame ?
One would want to see it operate before paying for it
 
Yeah I got pointed to that direction by someone who works at Trinity but when I checked it out could not really find the place as it is all under construction there. I believe this guy works for Atlantic Motorsports or something of the sort ??? I'll try and call Dynamic once done my night shifts here. Thanks for the info.....
 
No haven't gone that route yet but have been to the dealership. They do not supply a full rack anymore but you can get the two side rails for it, not many left in stock though and at 1580.00 per side I believe he gave me I would like to look at another option before forking this money.. but you never know I may have to go that route.
 
No Roger it is not the same guy. I willckeep on chwcking my end to see what my buddy's dad could do. Called him because of what you said above, about people soing complete cars in their shed! ;) will keep ya posted
 
As hard as it is, check a bunch out before jumping.
Everyone is on it and we will find a solution that hopefully saves money
but equally important is done right.
 
Yeah I agree it's gotta be done right. That's why I am taking my time and exploring all avenues before jumping to conclusion so I am going to start contacting the ones suggested here later on this week or early next week. Money is part of it but more than anything else I want someone that knows what he is doing and can tell me what I need part wise so then I'll fork out whatever is needed to get it done the best way possible. In the mean time I will try and get someone to fix this bracket so that once installed whoever is going to check for alignment of the roof has something to work with and then if I need a new side rail (or both) which includes that bracket I'll just order those then. I know that with time I'll surely find a solution but man these particular problems just suck, experts in these fields are really few and far in between and parts as I can see are too !!
 
Never know Fred I may just have to go that route ?? If you see him just ask as it would be nice to know that I have that option if ever I would need to. It would have to be from a wreck that didn't affect the roof though which I would think is probably quite hard to find.
 
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