Curling Soft-top edges - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mbboy · #1 04-04-2009, 05:29 AM

Anybody have a way to get the edges of a 107 soft-top to not curl up where they meet the car's body?

JimFreeh · #2 04-04-2009, 07:41 AM

I've found being careful when storing the top can make a difference on how much it curls up. Make sure the top material is not folded in a manner that causes it to curl.

Jim

Strife · #3 04-04-2009, 11:35 AM

How the top was installed also makes a difference. My 380's top has this problem worse than the 560's; the next top I do, I'm going to go slightly over the edge of the metal when I glue it to give the flap a more "downward" tendancy. I tried a lot of different methods to cure this, including gluing a second thin canvas strip underneath, but still no luck.

mbboy · #4 04-05-2009, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strife

How the top was installed also makes a difference. My 380's top has this problem worse than the 560's; the next top I do, I'm going to go slightly over the edge of the metal when I glue it to give the flap a more "downward" tendancy. I tried a lot of different methods to cure this, including gluing a second thin canvas strip underneath, but still no luck.

I tried velcro-ing the top's inner edges to the frame's rubber gasket, but that didn't work, either. So now I'm wondering if I could get a piece of the same material from a junk yard, and have the local top guy sew the piece on to it after he removed the stiching, in a way that didn't look patched? Getting the bottom hem right might be a problem though.

If Peter Serbanica is still around, maybe he could tell us if he ever did anything like this before?

rugby2 · #5 05-11-2009, 10:02 AM

seems to be a problem on most. since German engineering failed, perhaps some Yankee ingenuity is needed?

CWW · #6 05-12-2009, 08:58 AM

Nah it's not an engineering failure, it's an installation failure. I would bet money that most of these tops with this problem are replacements.

On our old 300SL, the original top never did this, and when we had it replaced it did it horribly. I think it has a lot to do with how the installer puts the replacement on.