Hard tops

[Joesson]

I bought my 2 as a top down only fun car and only use it on fine days and it lives in the garage for 6 months at a time.
Having, of necessity, driven in the rain with the top up I found that it didn't appeal to me.
The problem I have is with the OE soft top on cooler days, it doesn't want to fold and so has to be idled or driven to get the heater to do it's job, ease the vinyl/ fabric  and allow it to drop.
On that basis, if I were to be an all season driver, a hard top could be a solution.
But, a hard top costs around £500 and my understanding is that a cloth/ fabric top is available for just North of £300 and that material allows dropping and raising the hood to be a very quick and easy process.
I am aware of one top down devotee that this seems to work for.

PS: Last evening on a Midlands Mway at around 23.00 hours and 0 degrees I passed a TT with it's top down!

[J88TEO]

PS: Last evening on a Midlands Mway at around 23.00 hours and 0 degrees I passed a TT with it's top down!

Electric motor kaput!

[Petrus]

PS: Last evening on a Midlands Mway at around 23.00 hours and 0 degrees I passed a TT with it's top down!

Electric motor kaput!

In general the sheer endless variety of little things that can stop an electric folding roof is mind boggling. However, there always is a manual fail safe to wind the roof up or down .... only to discover that some lever has unlevered and by manual winding damaged beyond repair. Although only one simple lever which can be easily disassembled, it is part of a subassembly which can only be bought as one part. The 10 Euro plastic now costing 600.

[Joesson]

PS: Last evening on a Midlands Mway at around 23.00 hours and 0 degrees I passed a TT with it's top down!

Electric motor kaput!

I'm not a Luddite (really I'm not) but that simply didn't occur to me.
Vor sprung dirch technique , or whatever the correct spelling is of the one time Audi Advert surely wouldn't allow that to go wrong would it !
PS Thinking about it now, it did look strange and I could have been seeing part of the frame extended, hence the lower than the limit speed of the TT.

[Petrus]

Right, started car, let is warm the interior a bit while I rearranged the starage a bit for easier access to the hard top.

Folded top down and with help of my son put the lid on. What a joy of well thought through ease.
And agree with those who commented on spoilers; it does look even better with the wing I think.

Was not planning on taking De Kikker out before next week and then it is probably dry but now I most likely wíll!

[Johnny5]

Lurv my hardtop.  Unlike many on these venerable pages, I didn't buy my 2 for the convertible experience.  I wasn't actually looking for a convertible at all.  I was just after a cheeky, chuckable little sports car, an objective I have achieved, and buying my hardtop has enabled me to do so whilst maintaining my preference for a FHC.

That said, with the ability to go lidless in the summer, I do take advantage of it and run the car in convertible form about 4 months of the year.  I only really feel the benefit on 25+ degree days, though.

Two other issues:

1. I sometimes have to park my car under a tree, and some of the birds round here do concrete poo.  Much easier to clean off a hardtop than a vinyl soft top.

2. I'm definitely a little more careful where I drive/stop/park the car when running it as a convertible.  Quick story.  About 18 years ago, I was driving my hatchback through a dodgy area west of London and needed some petrol, so pulled in to fuel station.  Got out of car, standing next to petrol pump, with wallet in one hand and car keys in other, in full view.  Just then, I noticed a group of hoodies ambling down the road slowly, past the forecourt.  They looked and saw me, holding wallet and keys, and they changed direction, veering off the pavement and on to the forecourt straight towards me.  They didn't rush me at first, they were waiting till they were close enough that I couldn't do anything before rushing me, pretending to act calm.  Suspecting that their sudden course correction wasn't just a coincidence, I took evasive action by getting in the car and pushing down the central locking button.  And they changed direction again back on to the pavement and went on their way.  It was no coincidence.  They were going to mug/carjack me.  I do a self defense course now, so I'm always thinking, "Better to avoid [dangerous people, places and situations] than to to run; better to run that to de-escalate; better to de-escalate than to fight; better to fight than to die".  I did the right thing on that day, but I'm aware that if I'd been driving a convertible with the hood down, they likely would've had me.

[Call the midlife!]

Lurv my hardtop.  Unlike many on these venerable pages, I didn't buy my 2 for the convertible experience.  I wasn't actually looking for a convertible at all.  I was just after a cheeky, chuckable little sports car, an objective I have achieved, and buying my hardtop has enabled me to do so whilst maintaining my preference for a FHC.

That said, with the ability to go lidless in the summer, I do take advantage of it and run the car in convertible form about 4 months of the year.  I only really feel the benefit on 25+ degree days, though.

Two other issues:

1. I sometimes have to park my car under a tree, and some of the birds round here do concrete poo.  Much easier to clean off a hardtop than a vinyl soft top.

2. I'm definitely a little more careful where I drive/stop/park the car when running it as a convertible.  Quick story.  About 18 years ago, I was driving my hatchback through a dodgy area west of London and needed some petrol, so pulled in to fuel station.  Got out of car, standing next to petrol pump, with wallet in one hand and car keys in other, in full view.  Just then, I noticed a group of hoodies ambling down the road slowly, past the forecourt.  They looked and saw me, holding wallet and keys, and they changed direction, veering off the pavement and on to the forecourt straight towards me.  They didn't rush me at first, they were waiting till they were close enough that I couldn't do anything before rushing me, pretending to act calm.  Suspecting that their sudden course correction wasn't just a coincidence, I took evasive action by getting in the car and pushing down the central locking button.  And they changed direction again back on to the pavement and went on their way.  It was no coincidence.  They were going to mug/carjack me.  I do a self defense course now, so I'm always thinking, "Better to avoid [dangerous people, places and situations] than to to run; better to run that to de-escalate; better to de-escalate than to fight; better to fight than to die".  I did the right thing on that day, but I'm aware that if I'd been driving a convertible with the hood down, they likely would've had me.

The hooded youth are indeed a menace, I've seen various instances of them throwing things into open tops, rubbish off the street, traffic cones etc. I always get a bit nervy when sat in traffic next to the pavement in towns and cities, always try and have the kerbside window up to deter anyone from reaching in.

[tricky1138]

I do / did like the hard top and only got rid of mine as it is now a weekend fun car rather than my daily.

Running the car through winter when its dark and cold on the morning commute and dark and cold on the evening commute, the opportunity to get the roof down was almost non-existent, so having the quieter, better visibility hard top was the option for me. Sunny weekends and the roof would be off though!

Now that I dont use it all the time, I dont see a need for the hard top, as I bought the car for the convertible fun it is - the rest of the car just makes it more fun!

I would have bought a FWD front engined convertible had I not stumbled across the MR2!      

[Petrus]

1. I sometimes have to park my car under a tree, and some of the birds round here do concrete poo.  Much easier to clean off a hardtop than a vinyl soft top.

Have a photo of a bird droppting her vinyl top on mine....

2. I'm definitely a little more careful where I drive/stop/park the car when running it as a convertible.  Quick story.  About 18 years ago, I was driving my hatchback through a dodgy area west of London and needed some petrol, so pulled in to fuel station.  Got out of car, standing next to petrol pump, with wallet in one hand and car keys in other, in full view.  Just then, I noticed a group of hoodies ambling down the road slowly, past the forecourt.  They looked and saw me, holding wallet and keys, and they changed direction, veering off the pavement and on to the forecourt straight towards me.  They didn't rush me at first, they were waiting till they were close enough that I couldn't do anything before rushing me, pretending to act calm.  Suspecting that their sudden course correction wasn't just a coincidence, I took evasive action by getting in the car and pushing down the central locking button.  And they changed direction again back on to the pavement and went on their way.  It was no coincidence.  They were going to mug/carjack me.  I do a self defense course now, so I'm always thinking, "Better to avoid [dangerous people, places and situations] than to to run; better to run that to de-escalate; better to de-escalate than to fight; better to fight than to die".  I did the right thing on that day, but I'm aware that if I'd been driving a convertible with the hood down, they likely would've had me.

Had one very much alike when underway in my previous ragtop to collect my Spyder funnily enough. They even had a pitbull. Being tall, well trained and having written books on dogtraining and training/behaviour in general, it was on the line between fun and scary to see how body language confused them and the dog wag its tail.
I am sure the previous rugged ragtop was a better perspective than the teeny weeny hairdressers spyder.

On the avoiding; I have an arab treaty of furusiyya and it is só relaistically different from westerm ´chivalry´; the handbook for the horseman how in detail to fight in specific situations with different arms, several times simply says; ride away. Lóve it but am not put together that way :-(
Congrats on your wisdom. Would have been and be to my benefit if I had it. Done too many REALLY stupid things that even at the time seemed a bad idea but hey... hormones. It always galls me that women can use their hormone cycle as valid excuse for erraic behavior whereas we can not yet men suffer that hormone imbalance ALL THE TIME!!

Right, back to the subject.
A detail; the profile of the roof line, the lowered bit in the middle, I find styling genious. It gives maximum headroom without rasing he topline too much.

[househead]

1. I sometimes have to park my car under a tree, and some of the birds round here do concrete poo.  Much easier to clean off a hardtop than a vinyl soft top.

Soft-top poo removal ... wait for it to dry fully first, scrape off, brush the residue.

Hard-top / paint ... take off while wet if possible. Wet it first with a spray bottle if it's already dried.

[SV-3]

Right, back to the subject.
A detail; the profile of the roof line, the lowered bit in the middle, I find styling genious. It gives maximum headroom without rasing he topline too much.

Spot on Petrus - I love the way "the lowered bit" starts in the front bumper, is repeated on the bonnet and the roof and finishes across the rear lid. Full marks to the guys at Toyota for making the effort. You know, sometimes we look but we don't see and sometimes words fail me...  

[Petrus]

Right, back to the subject.
A detail; the profile of the roof line, the lowered bit in the middle, I find styling genious. It gives maximum headroom without rasing he topline too much.

Spot on Petrus - I love the way "the lowered bit" starts in the front bumper, is repeated on the bonnet and the roof and finishes across the rear lid. Full marks to the guys at Toyota for making the effort. You know, sometimes we look but we don't see and sometimes words fail me...  

I am surprised how few paint/vinyl personalisations make use of this quite distinctive styling feature. In ´Gulf´ livery it is even ignored...

If I would not have had my personal theme for a long time earlier I would have not had a doubt. Even then though, I tried follow some of the design lines with the red ´flutes´.

[Mackie]

Anybody need a hardtop

[Joesson]

That's ( something) like asking if anybody likes Marmite!

[Joesson]

Seriously, that is a valuable commodity that "some" Members have, and others yearn for, while true believers go topless.
If you have a hard top, and you are a true believer, put the top up for sale in the "For Sale" section.

[Mackie]

Hi
Have a hard top for sale
Showroom condition
Offers.

[Bernie]

Hi
Have a hard top for sale
Showroom condition
Offers.

Doesn't work like that here post up a sales thread with pics and state a price

Read the rules on selling too please

https://www.mr2roc.org/forum/index.php?topic=22555.0

[Ardent]

Anybody need a hardtop

Sounds like you are looking to give it away.
In which case I will help you out and take it off yours hands.
Then immediately put it up for sale myself.

Like @Joesson says. Put it up for sale in the private sales section.
And don't forget, the fitting kit is nigh on worth the same. As ridiculous as it seems.

Edit
Doh cross post

[Petrus]

Hard tops will by defininition become more common. They already have.
Hard tops get sold on when cars get scrapped = when the number of cars halves, the % of hard top doubles.

[Petrus]

Sunny weather for a least a week so took the hard top off again. Pushed the car back into the sun, hour later hard top off and in storage, soft top up, pushed car under the roof again: 5 minutes tops.

Made for a nice change, a few days of hard top driving. Has rather a luxury feel to it. Am also inclined to travel at higher speeds; 20 - 30+ km/h ´cruising´. Good thing it´s off again ;-)