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      10-30-2020, 12:47 PM   #12
awns729
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Drives: 2008 BMW 135i Convertible
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: West Nyack, NY

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Oh, and the most important thing I realized is if you use comfort access to bring the soft top down partially to relieve the tension, the car will bring it back up with force. If you turn the car into accessory mode (or start it) and use the interior buttons to relieve the tension, the top will stay unpressurized if you turn it off immediately (if I remember right). I was having a hard time lifting the rear section upwards to access the clips holding the top in until I realized there are certain scenarios where the car wants to close up the top and other scenarios where it'll let it hang. I was terrified of getting the clips back on in time but if you do the right combination of actions, you can have the car off and the top de-latched in an intermediate position with no time limit to work around. I opted to pull out the clips at the rear end of the top and flip the back fabric up above the window because my entire glass fell out. Others with less severe damage would be able to leave it in the unlocked / loose position and glue without removing the rear fabric clips. Hope this helps the next person!

Edit: Other notes... You can definitely scratch the glass with a razor blade. I didn't realize that it's pretty easy to do this when you're focused on just the glue area and was working in low light, so I have a lot of small scratches, especially in corners.

You can put small 6 x 6 x 6 in or so boxes in the corners to support the metal rails on either end of the top. This keeps the back glass / fabric 6-12 inches off the base of the car and is a good way to work for cleaning up glue or doing the final knock in of the fabric clips back into place. You'll also want to consider having something to push the glass up from the inside when reattaching the fabric. This guy's video will give you an idea of how to reattach (and therefore detach) the soft top fabric from the back:
)

When you inspect how much has become unglued, know that the top folds in on itself around the section that glues to the glass (OP's second to last picture). I didn't understand this until I got in there. Obviously you'll want to insert glue there too. Tension from the clamps should be enough to hold this seam shut as well. I glued the seam first and then glued the glass right after, and then clamped the top to the glass, which should apply pressure on both layers.

The working time (55 degrees, 75% humidity was my situation - see their PDF for details on how this affects curing time) of window weld is long enough that you should be ok, even doing this by yourself. Just preposition the suction clamps before you start gluing. A second person helps if you have a large section. 3 of my clamps fell off after I glued, so I was rushing to get them back on and doing the entire bottom half at the same time alone, so I didn't get absolute perfect alignment on the left and right bottom corners, but I'm still happy with it. Better luck with the clamps or having a second person or breaking it into 2 sections would have all helped.

Last edited by awns729; 10-30-2020 at 02:29 PM..
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