World Upholstery & Trim

#911-3008 PORSCHE TARGA TOP
REBUILD & SKIN INSTALLATION
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The following information is supplied as a customer service guide only. World Upholstery and Trim recommends professional installation of all our products. No guarantee or warantee with reguard to results of installations made by this guide is made or implied

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Tools/Materials Required
Phillips & Slotted Screwdriver --Scissors --Marking pencil or Chalk --Metric socket set
Awl
Spray Adhesive 1 lb. #9410 or Brush Adhesive, quart #9411
Weatherseal Adh. black #9412--Silicone Adh. Black #9413
Protective blankets --Masking tape
Pliers or Vice Grips
Rivet gun & rivets
Burlap, 2" Webbing

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Addition Parts Available
Headliner #911-4608,   Top to windshield weatherseal #911-1709
Door glass to top weatherseal horizontal #911-1716,
Top to targa bar weatherseal #911-1772
Targa Top Latch: 2 required:  #911 3001
Targa Top Handle: 2 required #911 3003
Targa Top: Clip 8 required  #911 3005

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Remove targa top from car, place upside down on clean work surface.

The top comes apart easily. Just unscrew the rubber window seals on either side, and then the rain gutters. You'll also have to remove two metal trim pieces on the frame, and perhaps fold back some of the vinyl trim on the frame. It'll be obvious. The top is cut away from the hold-down clips, and the headliner is beneath them. So if you're just doing the top, maybe you can leave the clips in place. If you're doing everything, and I'd suggest you do, since the headliner is cheap enough and you might as well as long as everything's apart, then take off the clips too. Then start taking off the top and headliner, Pay attention to how things were put together. Save the top so you can look at it if you need to during reassemble.
Skip this section if you are just replacing the skin
The top has three aluminum plates that are held together and to the front and back ends by burlap and webbing. The webbing is the strength member. Actually, webbing might be the wrong word. It's simply two pieces of tough stuff, a few inches wide, that run down both sides of the top, front to back. The burlap is there simply to prevent the vinyl top from chaffing on the aluminum. The webbing runs on the top side. It's not woven between the plates.
A warning though - When you have the top totally apart, and all the aluminum plates (3 free floating plates) are unattached, take the frame to your car, put it on the car, and align the plates on top of the frame - as if the top were attached to the car while driving. Lay the plates in place (this is without any vinyl on the frame. Then lay the webbing in place along the edges near the windshield frame, and the targa bar. Carefully note the position of the front and rear edges of each floating plate in relation to the 2 side plates - which do not float. Then while the webbing is laying in place, as if it were glued and riveted down, use a marker to mark the position of the plates.

After each major step in the Targa Top rebuild process: #1 install webbing, #2 install canvas, and #3 install vinyl - go back to the car each time and make sure the plates are centered between the top edge of the windshield frame, and the top edge of the targa bar. Not centered left to right - this matters too, but less so. What matters is that they are centered from to back. The most important thing is that the gap, maybe 3/8 inch, between the aluminum plate, and each edge (targa bar, windshield) is the SAME!!.

Other hints - Drill out the old rivets for the webbing, use the same factory holes. Buy rivet heads for the rivets - these are washers that go over the end of the rivet that gets flattened and get pulled against the opposing rivet head, thus sandwiching the material you are riveting. Also, wrap the nylon material over the edge of the aluminum, and rivet both parts of the same piece of webbing, the top section, and the part wrapped under. Use lots of sealant on the webbing and rivet heads. Allow to dry fully.

When you fold the frame you can now be certain that when it is unfolded everything will be in the right place.

Remove the clips at this point, since they will go over the headliner (for appearance). But...you want to be sure that they can be put back in exactly the same place. Simply hold the clip 'nuts' in place by gluing a piece of foam rubber over them and to the aluminum plates. That's what it looked like had been done at the factory. The reason 'nuts' is in parenthesis is that there is a single 'nut' for both bolts in each clip. Hold them in place with a piece of duct tape.

Put the top on, cutting away here and there as needed to fit the frame.. Glue it down along the flap that folds under all around. You're gluing only the flap, and you're gluing it to the underside of the top(the inside of the car side, so to speak). Start gluing from the center (of the front and back) outwards towards the sides. Pull evenly so the curve of the material follows the curve of the frame.

The raingutters go on easily.

The headliner is simple. Just put it on, it fits like a glove. Use a little glue to hold it to the top. You'll have to stretch it a bit to get it under the clips, and you'll have to poke holes in it to get the clip bolts through. Again, pretty obvious when you do it.