Nissan 370Z Forum - View Single Post

Elkano · 10-08-2021, 02:01 PM

Took me a lot of researching and thinking.
Will do my best to summarize.
1. First need to break loose the top.
2. Two locations, 1st bow, there’s a pop clip by the dome light switch. Pull it with a small flat screwdriver and using and Allen wrench with a quarter turn open the latching mechanisms.
3. Fifth bow, and this is kind of tricky, using a 12mm flat wrench, if I remember correctly, from the inside of the car reach under the rear window and loosen two bolts holding the latch in place. For this you need to remove the pop flops on that cover mesh. It’s pretty tedious as there’s not much room to turn the wrench and a closed wrench won’t fit over the bolts. You need to use the open wrench and turn it bit by bit alternating them. Once you are done with that the latch will still be attached to the compartment hatch where the top is stored.
4. Now you’ll notice that all bows are tied together so grabbing the first and fifth will collapse the whole top. Here I used and bungee cord to keep it tied and out of the way towards the front.
5. Open the trunk and remove the pop clips and cover trim panel behind the top compartment. This will expose 2 SS cables. Pull them using a screwdriver to protect your fingers. Pull the right wire to the left and the left wire to the right to unlatch the system that keeps the top compartment lid closed. In my case it wouldn’t release. And believe me I tried hard. So I removed the trunk lid to reach into the compartment lid hinges and loosen them. Once I did that I pulled the cables some more until they released the latches. I was very happy at that moment.
6 Open the lid and remove the 5th bow latch by disarming the hydraulic bar from it. Pretty easy to do. I wish I had a picture.
7. I removed all that mechanism from that lid at once and now I open it and close it manually.
8. I am not muscleman and can open the top and close it by myself Im about 2 minutes.
9. I don’t drive my car with the top up too much but for when I do I devised a system with a cable to tie down the fifth bow to the trunk. It’s no too elegant but it works fine.
10. So if you want to drive with the top up you need to lock the 1st bow with the Allen wrench. Like reversing step 2 above. That in itself will push the 5th bow down pretty good. Driving over 65ish mph you will notice the top will very slightly lifts at the 5th bow. That’s because of the speed and pressure difference between the outside of the top and the inside of the car. You can either crack the windows just a bit to equalize the pressures or tie down the fifth bow as I mentioned on step 9. Did I mention I am a mechanical engineer.
11. Anyway I love my car but didn’t want to pay the dealer all that money if I only drive the car when the weather is good.
12. Driving with the top down there is no issue as the compartment lid slides into a series of chutes and at 99mph it will not even move.
13. The procedure for opening and closing is exactly as what the car does when working. To hide the top you’ll need to loosen the 1st bow. Loosen the 5th if you have it tied down, collapse them and push them to the front. Open the compartment lid. Keep it open with your shoulder and drop the top into the compartment. Then let go of the compartment lid and it will slide on its own.
14. Obviously reverse those steps to put the top up again.

Hope this helps as I too like to keep all Z’s running.

10-08-2021, 02:01 PM	#9 (permalink)
Elkano Base Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Houston Posts: 5 Drives: 370z Roadster Tour Rep Power: 10	Took me a lot of researching and thinking. Will do my best to summarize. 1. First need to break loose the top. 2. Two locations, 1st bow, there’s a pop clip by the dome light switch. Pull it with a small flat screwdriver and using and Allen wrench with a quarter turn open the latching mechanisms. 3. Fifth bow, and this is kind of tricky, using a 12mm flat wrench, if I remember correctly, from the inside of the car reach under the rear window and loosen two bolts holding the latch in place. For this you need to remove the pop flops on that cover mesh. It’s pretty tedious as there’s not much room to turn the wrench and a closed wrench won’t fit over the bolts. You need to use the open wrench and turn it bit by bit alternating them. Once you are done with that the latch will still be attached to the compartment hatch where the top is stored. 4. Now you’ll notice that all bows are tied together so grabbing the first and fifth will collapse the whole top. Here I used and bungee cord to keep it tied and out of the way towards the front. 5. Open the trunk and remove the pop clips and cover trim panel behind the top compartment. This will expose 2 SS cables. Pull them using a screwdriver to protect your fingers. Pull the right wire to the left and the left wire to the right to unlatch the system that keeps the top compartment lid closed. In my case it wouldn’t release. And believe me I tried hard. So I removed the trunk lid to reach into the compartment lid hinges and loosen them. Once I did that I pulled the cables some more until they released the latches. I was very happy at that moment. 6 Open the lid and remove the 5th bow latch by disarming the hydraulic bar from it. Pretty easy to do. I wish I had a picture. 7. I removed all that mechanism from that lid at once and now I open it and close it manually. 8. I am not muscleman and can open the top and close it by myself Im about 2 minutes. 9. I don’t drive my car with the top up too much but for when I do I devised a system with a cable to tie down the fifth bow to the trunk. It’s no too elegant but it works fine. 10. So if you want to drive with the top up you need to lock the 1st bow with the Allen wrench. Like reversing step 2 above. That in itself will push the 5th bow down pretty good. Driving over 65ish mph you will notice the top will very slightly lifts at the 5th bow. That’s because of the speed and pressure difference between the outside of the top and the inside of the car. You can either crack the windows just a bit to equalize the pressures or tie down the fifth bow as I mentioned on step 9. Did I mention I am a mechanical engineer. 11. Anyway I love my car but didn’t want to pay the dealer all that money if I only drive the car when the weather is good. 12. Driving with the top down there is no issue as the compartment lid slides into a series of chutes and at 99mph it will not even move. 13. The procedure for opening and closing is exactly as what the car does when working. To hide the top you’ll need to loosen the 1st bow. Loosen the 5th if you have it tied down, collapse them and push them to the front. Open the compartment lid. Keep it open with your shoulder and drop the top into the compartment. Then let go of the compartment lid and it will slide on its own. 14. Obviously reverse those steps to put the top up again. Hope this helps as I too like to keep all Z’s running.