Cabriolet Targa Top Clips

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    • #8704
      Martin Ball
        @ball

        Hi XJSC owners,

        I am looking for some advice on how to tackle loose targa top clips. Some of the hex head bolts spin around and I suspect rust on the bolts has ceased to whatever the retainer is in the roof. I have heard from a mate that I can drill out and replace but I wanted to see if anyone had any other solutions.

        Many thanks Martin
        85 XJSC Red

      • #8707
        Laurence Jones
          @laurence_admin

          Hi Martin

          The Targa clips are bolted through to captive nuts that are on clips – the nuts are not spot welded in place. This allows the nut to have a certain amount of ‘float’ and therefore enabling you to adjust the position of the clip.

          THe hex bolts often spin because the little retaining clip holding the nut in place slips off and just spins round and round with the nut.

          So, what can you do…

          Well first thing is Be Very Careful With Those Clips – they’re old and often very brittle and quite a challenge to replace.

          Unfortunately there is no way to get to the captive nut without removing the trim, but if you need to do this then here’s what you need to do

          1/ remove the sun visors and it’s retaining clip – again take care as can be brittle. These simply unscrew

          2/ remove the rear view mirror – this is cast with some odd alloy so if you keep it supported until all screws out otherwise you’ll break a corner off.

          3/ remove the hex bolts holding the clips in place – drill out the hex bolts that are spinning (which might be fun as will try spining as fast as your drill bit)

          4/ remove the cover from the ‘A’ pillar (that’s the pillar down the side of the windscreen)- two screws with dish washers

          5/ you’ll now be able to remove the screw that holds the padded cover that runs along the top of the door opening. This is an aluminium panel covered in roof lining.

          6/ with care now you should be able to slide out of place the panel that goes across the front of the car (where you’ve just removed the sun visor, mirror and catches.

          Now you’ll be able to see the cage that the retaining nuts are in, and be able to rectify with replacement clip retained nuts.

          To put things back together it can be a bit of a pain getting the hex nuts to re-engage with the retained nuts (as the nuts do ‘float’ about quite a bit). I got round this by ‘lightly packing’ some tissue around the retained nuts to hold them roughly centrally in the slot. Once the Hex Bolt was engaged then it was quite easy to move the clip to adjust thier position as the tissue moved.

          Hope above helps,

          Laurence

          2/

        • #8724
          Martin Ball
            @ball

            Thanks Lawrence, much appreciated. Let me have a crack and I’ll let you know how I get on. Regards

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