Quoi?

The passenger side (right hand drive car) latch has always been a little more slack than the drivers side one, and when the hard top is on the mechanism is almost slightly loose. The roof does feel secure, but I suspect not by much and the latch rattles a lot on bad roads.

Looking at it closer, I think I need to move the latch point on the windshield forward just a few mm.

However, the screws/bolts are...well, a little f***ed....

Are these "impact" screws/bolts? They look like they might be...but dont want to ruin them even further... though if they are not impact screws, whats the alternative to get them open...?? It's not exactly a location I want to go drilling...

zeroptzero

I'm not sure if you are talking about the latches that are attached to the hardtop or the striker plates attached to the windshield frame ?. Either way they are just ordinary machine type bolts with phillips heads, they do have a bit of loctite on them. They are best removed with a long phillips screwdriver. Use the longest one your can find with a slightly over-sized head, when you go to unscrew them always push upwards towards the screw while turning. If you use too small of a screwdriver it can strip out the head as they are in pretty tight and you won't get enough torque on them. The screwdriver I use is pretty long , the head looks large but it fits tight.

The screws that hold the latch to the hardtop use red loctite and they go into aluminum threaded inserts, the welds that hold the inserts to the hardtop can break sometimes and that causes the screw to spin as it remains attached to the threaded insert due to the loctite. If yours aren't spinning that is a good sign, just try to find a larger screwdriver, mine is about 14 inches long with a larger sized head. It works every time. I'd post a pic if needed.

Go at it with a long phillips screwdriver with a decent sized head, and push in as hard as you can while turning to keep them from stripping.

Quoi?

I'm talking about the striker plates on the windshield. It looks like someone went at them with a screwdriver too small at some point as they are partly stripped already...

zeroptzero

Oh okay, those will have a bit of blue loctite on them more than likely. Do you have access to an impact wrench with a larger phillips head on it ?, it's the tool that you hit on the end with a hammer and it pushes and turns at the same time. I would try that if you can't get a large screwdriver to work. If you get the bolts out then replace them with new bolts.

Just so you know there isn't any adjustment on the striker plates when you get them loose, they only tighten down in one position, you can't slide them forward or backwards, but you can shim them with washers to tighten down the latches.

Avionics86

Might want to try hardtop strikers.