Does your soft top rattle?

[Tom F&L GoR]

I guess a car built in '94 is allowed to rattle as long as you can find the reason. My soft top rattled at one of the rear clips. I was fitting a hardtop and found the culprit.

First, need to remove the roll sport bar hoop vinyl pad thing. I used a 1/2 open end, but later learned they are metric bolts. From under the hoop (stick your head near the center speaker and look up) you can see the heads, but you only have to loosen them, not remove them. When all four are loose, the pad lifts straight up.

This reveals the four aforementioned bolts and two studs (with a slot cut in the end.) These studs are the bars that the rear soft top clips grab on to. One of mine was loose, so a simple flat blade screwdriver screws it back in. No more rattle.

It's always the little things.

Tools: 1/2" open end wrench
Time: 4.5 minutes
Cost: 0$

 

[jdeft1]

Hummmm, maybe you should stop by and have look at mine..... Just guessing but I think I have at least 4-5 different squeak points.... (with the soft-top)
hahahahaha........... Maybe I should start using the factory soft windows..?

 

[JonB]

Soft-Top-Rattle is "STANDARD" on most Gen 1 and many Gen 2 Vipers! Esp when the windows are not installed. The best-fastest thing I ever did to stop it ws to add a line of "Body Side Moulding Tape" to the top of the windsheild header and the sport bar. Yeah, it is sticky-double-sided, closed-cell foam tape, but it INSTANTLY stopped the annoying rattles and the wind and water leaks. It did make taking the top OFF a bit more challeneging, since it was, in effect, "stuck" down..... but starting at any corner and gentle pressure released the top, especially when WARM.....the time I most wanted the top off.

Before I added that tape, I would travel with a small towel that mopped rain seepage......Yeah, I sometimes drive in the rain.....I get 11' a year!

 

[Y2K10 SRT#39]

C'mon Jon. I live alot closer to the Olympic National Rain Forest than you do. I know you get lots of rain, but ELEVEN FEET????
PBR

 

[JonB]

C'mon Jon. I live alot closer to the Olympic National Rain Forest than you do. I know you get lots of rain, but ELEVEN FEET????
PBR

Absolutely.....Youv'e been here, seen the valley walls..... 37 miles from backside crater of Mt St Helens, 1100' high. We have had over 130" of rain here each of the past 3 years. And the rain guages I have are bad at capturing snow! Last year the snow was NUTS... several FEET of snow. [ Not relevant to Viper driving, I use JamesR's StealthTT then! ]

I just mailed you 2 pix.....

 

[Doug Supercharged Vipers]

One of the best ways to keep the soft top from rattling is to keep it off the car and folded. I know it sounds odd but the older Gen I tops were not designed to stay in place on the roof of the car. The composite is very week and warps with pressure and heat. It should only be in place to get you out of the rain and folded thereafter.