Well the subject says it all. Especially on the freeway the top lifts up, I did a search but didnt find anything. Do I have to buy a new top or is there some way of fixing it. thanks

 

What do you mean the tops goes up? Like when the tops up, does it blow around, or is it down and the cover thing (tonneau (sp)? )? goes up?

...Or am I just missing something really, really obvious...

 

What he is referring to is as seen from another car, that the fabric of the convertible top will poof up while driving at freeway speeds. Mine does it too. The top fabric has stretched and become loose. I only know of two solutions; you can drive with the top down all the time (a lot easier to do if you live in the warmer climates), or have the top replaced. I don't think an auto upholstry shop will be able to take the sag out of the top. But by all means ask them for their opinion.

Lon

 

ohhh...Lol, I'm practically an expert on this one. Want to see a top "poofing" up and blowing in the wind? Maybe you should come take a look at my car. When somone puts a twelve inch slit in your top, seems to do that a lot. The noise it makes is incredible; unbearable at highway speeds.


hopefully getting that replaced before the cars back on the road, hopefully...

 

It's doing what lonsal said (the fabric going up) oh well I guess i'll have to deal with it until i replace my top. thanks for the replies. Oh by the way thanks for telling me about your slit it the top it makes me feel better about mine LOL.

 

this makes my t-top leak seem a-ok

 

As a temporary repair you can use some iron-on cloth patch material from the inside. Hold a towel behind it and press down with an iron to repair the rip. It would be best if you'd done this soon after the top was cut. Now the fabric may have frayed quite a bit at the edges.

Lon

 

even with a new top it's going to do it a little bit.

The area directly above the roof is a low pressure zone due to the air current over the top of it. Since it's a low pressure zone, the air pressure within the cabin actually pushes it up, just like air in a balloon.

 

Moved!

 

Well, if a top is in good shape or new, it can be taken loose from the front bow and stretched back tight, and reglued and screwed back to the front bow. We had to do this with mine after we put a new top on it. After a few months it had stretched out a little and we just adjusted it and put it back together. I don't want to seem like I'm making this an easy process, but it can be done.

 

I didn't know that, thx Fredo.

 

I don't know if any of you guys has ever had the top actually off of the car or not, but mine did this before I put on a new one. What the problem was with mine was that there are strips of fabric that are attached to the bows underneath the top to hold it down. When I took off the old top all of the attachment strips were torn loose, so that nothing was holding the top down when air pressure builds up as you drive at speed. If you have a top that is in good condition there may be some way to fix this, but if you are going to replace the top you shouldn't have this problem with the new one.

 

I took a look in a manual I purchased off Ebay a while back to try and get an answer on this. I've seen other cars going down the road with the balooning top thing going on and though "Boy, I'm glad my top isn't doing that!

The manual is from GM and was part of a Chverolet Certified Technician series and is titled "1991 Convertible Top Service." It covers the tops on Camaro, Corvette, Cavalier, and Geo.

The solution to the problem (I hope) was on page 2.
---------------------------------------------
Quote:
TOP RETAINER:
At some bow locations, there's a pocket sewn into the top cover. A metal retainer in the pocket is screwed to the bow. This prevents the top cover from balooning away from the bows when the vehicle is moving.
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I would guess that you could pull back the headliner and look on each side for these pockets and the retainers that should be there. If there are anymissing or not bolted down that should be easy to fix.

Hope this helps!

 

The problem might also be happening because there is a tube of fabric material attached to the top exactly where the bows are. When you put the top on there is a thin metal strip that goes into this tube and fits inside the U shaped bow. It's hard to see this if you have a headliner. When you line up the top correctly and get it tensioned right, there are screws that go into this strip and hold the top down and keep this ballooning from occurring. The problem is that eventually the seam holding this strip to the actual top lets go and the top inflates at speed. If you guys are really wanting to stop this from happening you need to check out your top, possibly pull part of the headliner down if you have one and you may be able to repair the seams holding the top down.