farpolemiddle

Anyone regret removing the soft top completely? I am seriously considering going nothing/hard top only but looking for feedback on dudes who wish they had not.

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

You live in oregon. Don't do it unless you want to always have the hardtop on.

I can't count the number of times I left the house with the top down without a cloud in sight. And 15 minutes later I was getting poured on.

hector

I live in Florida so it depends on what time of the year.

Right now, I don't regret it one bit. Hardtop is much more hot weather friendly.

But 6 months from now I will regret it every time I take the car out for a cruise. I almost wish the SCCA would exclude the 2003 Club Sport from the Miata line so we can't get rid of our soft tops. Almost wish......

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

Stereo sounds better. A/C works better. Rear vision is better. Car looks better. Less sticky interior after pouring rain in the hot summer.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

Both my previous NB's the soft top was removed.

Hard top fo lyfe

farpolemiddle

I ain't gots no A/C but I get what you are saying.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

no ragrets

hector

IMO, car looks better top down/no top.

And again IMO, unless you are racing and have to get rid of the 40 lbs, there is no need to get rid of the soft top. You can do the hardtop during awful weather and store it when the nice weather moves in.

soot

I'm running a bolted on hardtop and just pulled the soft top. Made the interior much nicer. There's plenty of space to throw a bag/etc on the rear shelf now without obstructing too much rear view. I don't miss the soft top at all. If I'm planning on taking a girl up the canyon or something it's not too bad to pull the hardtop.

Eunn

I recently removed mine after getting a hardtop. The glass was falling out, it leaked and it was rattling under the hard top. I really miss the split second decision of going top down though. I would trade my hardtop for a mint soft top any day. I almost let my gf's cat out of her ground floor apartment carrying the hardtop back outside when nasty clouds rolled in during her soccer game.

thumpetto007

iTrader: (15)

I will never remove my soft top. It's just too convinient.

I have a hard top as well, I haven't used it in almost 5 months. I plan on selling it, since its the same cost as a 4 pound hardtop from carbon miata.

I go top down as much as possible. I'll even pull over and drop the top between rainclouds. Not joking. Unless I'm going 80+mph, then top down in rain, nothing gets wet.

Monk

iTrader: (3)

See my thread about hard top group buy from treasure coast. $550 shipped is where we ended up with 5 purchased total.

thumpetto007

iTrader: (15)

^Wow, nice price.

I have an OEM hardtop, with defroster, in great shape, I thought those go for over 1000. :(

Monk

iTrader: (3)

They do.
I'm saying you can get a lightweight hardtop for much less.
You will be money ahead if you sell your oem top.
It won't be nearly as nice on a daily driver though.

thumpetto007

iTrader: (15)

Is that because the lightweight hardtops (including the full carbon version) have much less, or no insulation? Lots of NVH?

Monk

iTrader: (3)

No insulation at all.
They can seal decently though.
They don't look as good unless you have a body shop smooth it out and paint.
By that point, it doesn't make any sense to do away with the oem top.
If appearance isn't your top priority and you want to shed some pounds up top, it's for you.
If you're Vlad, stay away.

farpolemiddle

Haha. you started off strong and got into crazy details. I thought the last sentence was going to be what you had to eat that day.


So I am going to try and "act" like I do not have the soft top for a while and see if it bothers me. Obviously the entire rain season I am just going to leave the hard top on anyway. It would be nice to have the extra room on the shelf for stuff. I just got done fixing my latches since 3 out of 4 were jacked up and did not stay latched. I just pulled them off and did the drill and add screw trick and it worked great. I guess I got lucky I did not break or strip any of the bolts because they did have red thread sealer.

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

So january through december?

farpolemiddle

True.

slug_dub

I'm in the hardtop fo lyf camp, but I have no care for the mX5's looks with softop and 'straya is too stupidly hot for any kind of topdown activity.

No softop in there also increases storage space for stuff, though diagonal member of the rollbar does make shoving some of the things in there a pain.