Well my tops are still leaking but the thing is I can't figure out where the water is coming from. It leaks from where the top plastic and the a pillar plastic meet together.

So my question is those that have leak free tops where are the bolts placed where the top pin latches into?

 

each to his own, i've had 4 t-top cars and they were all different, but my camaro right now is about an 1/8th of an inch from the lowest setting, and my firebird is all the way to the bottom, but if you think about it, if you pull the bracket down you'll get more adjustability...just take off the plastic...lock it closed...push up in the front and the back and see how much it moves...then try and move it down, keep doing that till there is absolutely no jiggle left, thats how i did my bird and she's fine to this day.

 

So would it be best to pull the plastic off both the t-top and A-Pillar? And should I lleave the female end securely tightened?

 

take the plastic off the a-pillar by the windshield and the back of the door glass on the opposite end...open your window, close and lock the t-top, and then lift up on the front half, see how much that giggles, lift up on the back, see how much that giggles, then take out the t-top, get i think a 7mm tool whether a socket wrench or w/e, and then lower it accordingly, and then when you get it to the point of no giggleing, i would suggest taking it back out...and try and put it down another 1/16th of an inch, a very minute amount, and that should ensure closure, and it should be nice and tight to lock and absolutely no movement.
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you don't need to take the plastic off the t-top itself for this procedure.

 

Okay thanks I will have to try this in the morning for sure. Did this seem to fix your t-top leaks?

 

yea, i went down the road when i first got my bird, and i was getting splashed in the face, now i can drive down the road and she's fine. Put a hose on the t-tops, that was fine for me too...also depends on how good your weatherstripping is, i've been fortunate to have good weatherstripping cars. Then again by next summer i don't think i'm rarely going to ahve the t-tops on so i'll see how good i thought mine really were, lol.
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and with my camaro it was fine driving down the road, but wash the car??? forget about it, it was tight, but i did that 1/16th of an inch more down thing, even an 1/8th if you think it'll help, and she doesn't let a single drop in. Then again i almost need a crowbar to turn the handle it's so tight, but thats the point, there is always a way to tighten those windows, and you don't want to do it too tight, your supposed to be able to just gently push it and it unlock, my camaro you need arm strength, but i just haven't toyed with it again, but try it out, and see where it gets you

 

Well I adjusted the female ends and I just don't see how the damn thing still leaks. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

here are a couple things to try, i just noticed these things quick in the tech articles off of the main page, the reason for the second link is becuase it suggests how to adjust your side window, possibly raising it up a hair will get rid of your leak, i'm not sure excatly what your experienceing, it's hard to help when your not infront of the car ya know, so it's just a couple suggestions. Good luck!

https://www.thirdgen.org/ttopleakfix

https://www.thirdgen.org/windowadjust

 

Well I took a look at where I think it is leaking and that is where it comes from underneath the a pillar cover and drips out a little bit. The main drip is from the crack between the cover and the ttop cover. I've noticed that driving the car in the rain it will have a slow drip but when I go over a bump or slow down it starts to leak worse.

 

any chance your car is twisted??? I know of a couple cars that were slightly twisted and no matter what you did to the tops it didn't help it. My camaro is almost like that, the previous owner put some windshield sealant next to the weatherstripping in the front, so that when you have the t-top locked, it meets that added sealant, and that seems to fix the problem. Like i said it's hard to help when the car isn't infront of you. As far as leaking when your slower it's becuase the air is concentrated at higher speeds trying to go over your car, when your slower it can go in different directions and get into more cracks and crevices, thats why when you have your windows cracked in the rain, not as much gets in when your going highway speeds, but when your going slow your arm is soaked.
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anyway you can take a picture of your weatherstripping and post it up?? Take a pic of the corner of that weatherstripping with the t-top off and then put it on and lock it, and take a pic from the top and side so maybe i can see something else to look at.

 

Well the thing is that the car never used to do it when my dad drove it but when he gave it to me I wanted to adjust the tops to try and eliminate wind noise and this happened.

If you need other pics than these I can definitely get them for you.

 

ok, here's a question...are these lexan t-tops or w/e else material they were for 91/92...because up until 90 they were all real glass. I've read that GM had to replace MANY of the 91/92 tops due to warpage and would initiate with leakage. Someone else may need to chime in on these, i've only dealt with 82-90 t-top issues. Other than that everything else looks good. Another offtopic suggestion would be even if it's not a complete job, i would suggest getting some sealant primer on those bare spots of metal otherwise your going to be sorry in a couple years. Resale value will be helped even if the color doesn't match, as long as it doesn't rust through. In the end you either may have to try and find new tops if that is the issue, or replace them with the glass version, of which would require you to replace the female mounts on the car to adapt to the different plugs of the tops.

 

They are the lexan tops. I do have a set of glass I could try to use and see if by chance that would help. Are the glass tops supposed to have the metal rails on the sides?

Also with the glass tops on the drivers side the rubber drip rail is inside the glass. Should I try to adjust the top?

 

like i said all i've dealt with are the glass tops. Some years do have metal rails some don't. i believe as a rough estimate...82-84 have metal rails along the sides like yours...and i believe 85-90 don't have metal rails. My '84 caro has metal rails and my 86, 87 and my 88 i've had didn't have metal rails.

I'm not sure of what you are referring to when you say that the driver side rubber drip rail is inside the glass. What adjustment are you referring to? Just confused on that part of your reply.

Also you need to look, do the pins of the glass t-top look identical to the lexan ones you have been using. As far as i know your lexan pins got smaller than what the glass used, not sure. That would be an issue if you were to try and just swap them if they aren't the same pins. The internal pin mechanism may be swapable, but like i said, i've never played with the 91-92 so i can't confirm that. If the pins are identical, try to swap, if adjustment from that point is needed, do it. See if that helps, if it does, than we may be able to rule that the lexan's are warping. Do that and lets see where you get.

 

I haven't verified the size of the pins from the lexan and the glass but the glass does fit and lock well. However the rubber drip molding now sits inside the door glass and would the female adjustment help this?

The glass tops on both the passenger and drivers side with the door closed, the door glass sits on top of the rubber drip rails. Can I get replacements just in case?

 

ah, i know what your tlaking about now...i don't know the cross compatability, i know i have on other cars had a problem like that, and what helped was closing the door by pushing the top of the door glass in as i was closing the door, like you would lean against the door to close it, put a slight pressure against the glass, see if that leaning will tuck it under that drip rail. Other than that you may have to re-align the side glass if there is a significant change. I heard that they used a different t-top weatherstripping that got assimilated into the 4th gens, but i don't know if that change made any difference to the weatherstripping on the t-top itself.

Can you get replacements of what? The lexan t-tops or the rubber drip rails?

Female adjustment of the brackets may help getting the drip rail outside of the window, but if it's nice and snug you really don't wanna screw with that, you should play with the door glass first, see if that can fix it.

 

Well this morning I noticed that with my lexan tops the door glass weatherstripping and the front portion on the drip rail on the drivers side gets squished by the door glass. Should I try what you suggested and push that top let corner of the glass while I'm shutting the door?

And yes I would like to buy just the rubber drip rails if possible.

 

you can get just the rubber drip rail...i believe they are like $50 a piece for each piece of glass, and i would try and push the top of the glass as if you were closing the door. It's going to take a while before you figure out how hard you need to push to completely close the door without putting your hand through the glass, but you will get it eventually, just may take a couple tries. I would do that for right now until you can try to adjust the door glass. From your pictures i don't see why there is that much of a difference, but maybe with the newer lexan tops, it was made possible to put the side windows up farther to create a better seal. I'm not sure. I've also seen on the glass top versions i've had the rubber start to slide down, so maybe it's the rubber's fault in this matter as well. I would suggest figureing out how to close it without adjustment just for this week. Drive it around in the rain, see if you can get it to reporoduse the problem. If it doesn't come back, then i would suggest adjusting the car to the tops (i.e. adjust the side window for the tops). If it doesn't help, we can go back to the lexans and try something else. Do me a favor and take a pic of the t-top on the car alone, and then just as you would close the door, let me see where it's catching and trapping the rubber inside the window. Maybe like i said the rubber is too low and i can notice that from the pictures and with the possibility or replacing it might fix the problem. Like i said, for right now just take the pics, but i would go into your first rain storm and drive around for like 20 minutes (after you get the glass to sit inside the t-top somehow, even if you need to lower the window and put it back up inside the t-top as is supposed to go) and drive around for about 20 minutes. Lets see if she leaks.
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wait...when you close the door with your lexans on the drip rail gets squashed in the front by the door glass???? Then yes i would suggest that...that could very well be why it's leaking in the front. The glass needs to sit flush against the entire door way weatherstripping and sit up in the t-top weather stripping to function properly.

 

Well I pushed up the portion of the drip molding but now just the top corner of the weatherstripping on the a-pillar get caught in the glass. I can get you the pictures hopefully sometime today.

Thank you so much!

 

I have the same problem. Any good results?

 

any updates?