grossmann66

Eric, the headliner was on the car all the time. No problem with that. I have the rear speakers and did remove them and the storage box. O do not know if that is really necessary. But after the installation I did some leakage tests. And without the storage box it was much easier to check for leaks on the rear part of the top from the inside. Chris

Eric, you do not have to disassemble the liner. I exchanged the top on my 01 Boxster S with the liner on the car, and it never hurt me during installation process. Chris

Hello, here is an update of the latest status and some observations I want to share with the community: 1) The lower eye of the bowden cable (there were the cable will be attached to the lower B-pillar) is to small. The screw that is assembled at that position on my 2001 Boxster S has a diameter of 5.1mm. Whereas the eye just has a diameter of 4.9mm. It took me just some minutes to widen it by a Dremel tool. But if somebody wants to buy a GAHH top, you might ask them if they changed this glitch. I already wrote them a mail regarding this. Also the length of the outer cover of the bowden-cable was to long at that position. I was not able to align the hole of the eye with the hole were the screw has to go in. So I removed about 1 cm of cable cover to give the eye more play. With that the assembly was no problem. For me it looks as if they ship the top with the wrong eye, which causes both problems. 2) There is no hole in the canvas flap that will be attched to the lower B-pillar (described in 1) ). Punch a whole large enough before you install the top. Mine was very small ( I did not want to remove much material). So when I had the top on, it was very difficult to widen the hole up as the flap is in a very narrow place between al those bows. And it is anyhow a difficult location when you try to align the screw with the eye and the washer and the flap to the hole. Finding a dropped parts would be really difficult. 3) When you put the fat weather strip in the rearmost bow (#16 at Mike Fockes description) it helped me a lot to unclip those big black plastic covers that protect the hinges 4) Aligning the holes of the canvas with the holes of the aluminum plates: Due to the double side tape I wanted the first attempt of alignment being the final one. So I used long, thick toothpicks to align all holes one after another. It worked out pretty good. 5)The 4 Philips screws (#3 at Mike Focke) have a different length. The third screw from the front was shorter. 6) At the front end of the top there was a cardboard strip sewn in at the old top. The GAHH has nothing there. There was just a loose cardbord strip send with the top. I assume GAHH send this so you can kind of "fill" the metal ridge of the foremost bow. I did not use the cardboard because I could not see any help in it. Instead I used my automotive foam double side tape to fill the ridge and glue the canvas to underneath the front frame . So far it looks as if it is working pretty well. Today I could finish my car. After everything was assembled I closed the top. Because of the new canvas it stayed about 2 inch open. So I had to pull it until the hook could engage. Now I will let it sit for two days to stretch before I try to open it for the first time completely. Maurice, do you think this time is sufficient? I will keep you updated. Overall I have a very good impression of the quality of the GAHH top. I mainly choosed it over the Robbins because they are longer in the market. And so the might have more time and feedback to improve their product (delaminating glass...) Overall it took me about 4-5 hours of disassembly and about 14 hours to assemble it back together. The most time consuming part was to put in back the screw at the back lower side of the clamp rail. Both sides took me about 2 hours together. Also putting in all the weather strips into the rear end took quite some time. The car is really looking good with the new top. So far, there is only one small wrinkle which does not bother me at all. The whole thing cost me about a weekend of time but was definitely worth the fun. Maurice, thank you very much for all your advice you gave me. Without you advice and the Homepage of Mike Focke I would have definitely not been able to change the top myself. It is great to have guys like you out there! Thank you! @986fan: As mentioned, my overall impression of the GAHH is pretty good. The small eye can be fixed as can the bowden cable cover. The cardboard not sewn to the front of the canvas was no big problem for me at the moment as I did not use it ( I hope it will stay this in the future). I do not know if the Robbins tops come in the same condition or they do not have those glitches. I do not know anything about the BAS top. For me the most important point was that I did not hear about a GAHH with delaminating glass after they did their improvements. Whenever you have some questions were I can help you, please let me know. Christoph

Maurice, thank you very much for your information and your kind words. With that recommendation in mind, I will definitely exchange the red ball cups! Concerning the foam sealer: There I got me some foam which is adhesive on on side. Out of this foam I cutted two pieces that should be very similar than the old ones. As adviced, I spared enough material around were the philips screws will be later. Now lets come to the slider! Thank you for the link. In fact I read the thread during my preparation and had the clear feeling from this, that the old slider ...7000 out of my car will be way shorter than the updated slider I buy (...7002). It was a big surprise for me, that the section of the slider where you slide the canvas in is about 1 inch longer at my old slider. I compared part#: The old slider has the ...7000 on it, the new slider has the ..7002 (but is shorter ?!?!?). On the slider-picture, the left parts is what I bought new, the right parts (longer) are what came out of the vehicle. My feeling tells me, use the longer slider. My brain tells me, use the newer (shorter) slider as Porsche did not develop it without reason. I also included a picture of the new top where you can see those elastic strips. GAAH tells that they should be fixed to the third bow from the front. Thank you very much for your advice! Christoph

Maurice, it would be helpful if you can halp me with your advice. Today I removed my old top from my 2001 Boxster S. Due to your good description I did not had a problem. But for the installation process I have two questions were I defintely need your advice: 1) As adviced by you in a thread I bought the latest version of the sliders. Which is at the moment in fact the 986 5616 7002 (the ...7003 are apparently not valid anymore). In my car there was the ...7000. Comparing both parts, the older one is about 1 inch longer and I never had problems with cables falling out. I did not damage the sliders during disassembly. At the moment I am leaning towards using the old slider again. My thinking is, the longer a slider is the better it would guide the cable and prevent the cable from falling out of the guiding channel, or? But for what reason would Porsche then shortened the slider in the newer version ....7002? They probably did not do this without reason. I am really not sure which slider would be better. I have to add that my GAHH top does have on each side an elastic strap (at the position where the Porshce top had the velcro). 2) I got the new white plastic ball cups. Thank you for your help on that!!!! In my car, there are the red ball cups installed. I do not have a problem with them so far. I tried to pry them off, but I did not suceed (and I did not want to use greater force as I was scared to damaged something). Would you recommend exchanging them as a preventive measure? Or should I let them be in the car? Is there a trick how to get the cups of easily? Sorry for bothering you!!! Thank you already in advance for your help! Christoph

Maurice, could you send me the source as well? I am planning to install a GAAH glass top and thought it might a good idea to exchange the red sockets with newer ones. Thank you! Christoph