santo
Viper Owner
Okay, I thought I'd get your attention with that title 
My RT soft top looked like swiss cheese after the previous owner allowed it to bounce around in the trunk so I just bought new material from A.A. Best Co. I am getting it installed as we speak but I needed to devise a way to prevent it from happening again so I came up with this little invention below (if no one else thought of this already as a search here produced no hits). It also is useful for hard top storage so your pins won't get bent.
I cut up a "pool noodle" which is a 3" closed cell foam cylindrical tube about 4 feet long (available at pool stores or just about anywhere where pool accessories are sold. They look like this:
I cut two six inch pieces and made a slit in the middle big enough to house the hard top/soft top clips (mine was solid in the middle). Here's what they look like on my hard top:
They slip over the longer back pins and can be used for storage of either the hard top or soft top to protect them, like this:
It makes installing either top much easier as you can place it on the car without worrying about scratching the sport bar. You can put it in place and then remove them one-by-one and install the top with no worries about scratching as shown here:
Not exactly the best colour choice but I had this one laying around and used it. The inner portion of this one was solid but you may find the newer style have holes. It should still work.
I don't know if this is useful but it makes installation of your RT top worry free and you won't have to worry about folding the soft top carefully to prevent it from moving around because the damaging back pins are protected. I did NOT cover the front pins as they are relatively safe and allows installation to be easier since you can guide the front pins into place and the back covered pins will line up.
Hope someone finds this useful. Patent pending ;-) I think I found the cheapest mod to date as those tubes are only a couple of bucks and you have three feet left over for spares
Hence my "foam tubes" ;-)
Santo
My RT soft top looked like swiss cheese after the previous owner allowed it to bounce around in the trunk so I just bought new material from A.A. Best Co. I am getting it installed as we speak but I needed to devise a way to prevent it from happening again so I came up with this little invention below (if no one else thought of this already as a search here produced no hits). It also is useful for hard top storage so your pins won't get bent.
I cut up a "pool noodle" which is a 3" closed cell foam cylindrical tube about 4 feet long (available at pool stores or just about anywhere where pool accessories are sold. They look like this:
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I cut two six inch pieces and made a slit in the middle big enough to house the hard top/soft top clips (mine was solid in the middle). Here's what they look like on my hard top:
They slip over the longer back pins and can be used for storage of either the hard top or soft top to protect them, like this:
It makes installing either top much easier as you can place it on the car without worrying about scratching the sport bar. You can put it in place and then remove them one-by-one and install the top with no worries about scratching as shown here:
Not exactly the best colour choice but I had this one laying around and used it. The inner portion of this one was solid but you may find the newer style have holes. It should still work.
I don't know if this is useful but it makes installation of your RT top worry free and you won't have to worry about folding the soft top carefully to prevent it from moving around because the damaging back pins are protected. I did NOT cover the front pins as they are relatively safe and allows installation to be easier since you can guide the front pins into place and the back covered pins will line up.
Hope someone finds this useful. Patent pending ;-) I think I found the cheapest mod to date as those tubes are only a couple of bucks and you have three feet left over for spares
Hence my "foam tubes" ;-)
Santo
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