I've owned 9 Miatas and today I just learned that you can adjust the hardtop latches which cover the Frankenstein bolts. I've been trying to track down a rattling noise on the passenger side since I bought this '95...took the latch apart and one of the 12mm bolts is missing completely, the other doesn't appear to have anything to thread into. Are they just held in with nuts on the bottom, or is some part of it intended to be threaded?

 

It's been a long time since I've owned a hard top, but IIRC, there's a regular non-flanged hex nut that the bolt screws into. I believe it sits in a hex-shaped recess on the underside of the latch body. It goes bolt, washer, U-shaped plate, hardtop, hex.

I think.

 

Spot on.

 

Alright, guess I need 4 hex nuts. Thanks gang.

 

Oddly enough, the M8x1.25 nuts which fit the OE bolts didn't slot into the hardtop. I ended up stepping down to M7x1 nuts & bolts. Nuts were a little loose, but they worked.