Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi I'm Doug, I'm your tech support representative for Atlantic British and in this video
we're gonna
show you how to install your new best top soft top on 95 97
Land Rover Defenders now we carry these and they've been very successful
they're good fitness actually come from the same manufacturer who made it for
Land Rover so it's a very good fit has all the snaps and
equipment you need to install them now first thing I want to point out before we
start putting the roof on
is that we've added a third rib which is
available through us, it's called an Alpine Bow and it actually is
a factory add on that you can do
As a matter of fact the roll cage in this
actually is already pre-drilled to accept the Alpine Bow
now it's there is additional support if you're in an area where you get a
cumulative snow
obviously without their rib there you do lose some support the middle the roof
and heavy snow can you end up causing damage so with the third bow
you I get the extra support help save the roof
so essentially what we're gonna do is you start by
laying a roof out, you want to determine front to back
and the back will have
the straps and this is what gets wrapped around the back
the roll bar or as Land Rover called it the Safari cage
the front
has a solid strip a plastic across that tucks into the
front cross assembly and so that gives you an easy way to determine if
you dealing with front and back
and obviously you want to know where front and back is before you put it up on top in the
vehicle
now I normally recommend you have a helper
it's a lot easier with two people to initially drape over the top
but it can be done with one person. They really are
relatively light start from the middle of the vehicle
set it up top
and she'll stay for a minute
you simply pull it over in place
over the top of your Alpine Bow
and in to the back
at this point your going to
take one of these straps and simply wrap them around the,
back off on the adjustment I guess,
you'll find snaps on the inside the Bow
one here here here here and here so you got five across the back
you're going to attach 2 just to snap the on so that
you'll have some support to hold the top in place while you're working on the
front and center
later on in the assembly
once we get going here will be able to pull down on the strap and adjust it so it's
tighter
this step is just the essentially hold it in place for you
while you're installing the top
let's try and get two on there so that we've got a good,
good attachment
any way, so
next step, we get the doors open
we drape the top
now you can see at this point why
we generally advise two people to do this it is much simpler
but with I'm gonna show you in this video that
this can be done with one person now we're going to just pull down the
door covers just for holding it in place
and you can all ready how the top takes form
and sets in exactly where it's supposed to
looks pretty good so far
alright next step is we're gonna climb inside
and essentially put the straps on the middle support around
the center of the Safari cage
okay
so now we've secured the center on to the Center rib by the five
snaps
and they'll support the center now and you'll also see that
they built into the roof additional supports so that we can
wrap this right around the arctic bow and that will hold it in place
this is definitely some additional and needed support on here should you be in an
area where
you can accumulate snow or heavy rain as you can see you just get down the line, you will attach
the Velcro there
you have another one here and it's a nice tight fit now we're going to move
up to the front
where we're going to take that solid plastic strip that I showed earlier that
identifies the front of this roof
and we're going to tuck it into the piece that bolts to the top
of the windshield now that piece if you are going from
a soft-top to a replacement soft top that piece will be on your vehicle
if you're going from a hardtop to soft top you're going to need that cross
piece on the top of the windshield
because it is not used on the hardtop so
this is something that we have found that Land Rover has discontinued the
part
and we are in the process of trying to have one built designed so that we
can supply to our customers
should you want to do a hard top to soft top changeover in the better
months
all right so now we're up front and what we're going to do
is attach this strip you have a hard plastic strip that runs the entire width of
the
roof now this strip, you're gonna come forward with the roof
you're gonna tuck in with the plastic into this slot
that's built into the top piece over the wind shield that I described earlier
now this job part of the job becomes much easier if you do this on a nice
warm sunny day
and you had the opportunity to warm up the roof under the Sun if
you have access a colder weather a warm garage
but the warmer the better the roof is a lot more pliable and a lot easier to
attach
once we do get this tucked in and we'll show you the finished product
there are snaps you'll see here on the corner
you have a snap that will snap into a receiver
that's built into this top piece there's one on each side
okay now you can see what it looks like with the
top tucked in place now you see in some of the still pictures that we're going to
attach to this video I find that it's a lot easier
if you can get one corner started and as you're tucking in
tap with a rubber mallet and it will tuck the plastic in it's gonna be tight
and again I can't stress how important would be to get the stop as
warm as possible before you put it in it will make your life much easier
once you have the top in place like so you have your two snaps one in each
corner
down inside what I would suggest with that is if you have a plastic upholstery
tool or something to that effect where you won't scratch the paint you can tuck
that down inside
and be able to pop the snap in much easier than trying to do at your fingertips
now I'll show you where we need to snap into the sides
over each door and then we'll work our way to the back now I'll show you there's two
snaps
there on the side panel just behind the for each front door you'll see these two
snaps
this gets tucked up over the outside
of the Crossrail over the door your seem
sits in a groove thats
built in behind the support for the rail
we'll come down tuck in up over the top
and then we'll take an inside view and show you where the snaps go
now looking from the inside of the vehicle you have a Crossrail over the top of
each door
on that rail you're gonna find five snaps two, the two closest ones towards the
back
are going to be attached to the snaps I just showed you earlier on
the side panel
relatively easy to get at
and not always going in on the first snap
okay then you also have
this panel that you've tucked in
in the process of setting up the front and again this gets wrapped around the
rail
and just simple snap
you're gonna need to
move things stretch things sometimes it may even look like it's not gonna line
up
but once everything starts to lock into place you actually see how
how well it actually does now we've got this piece
snapped in we've got the side panel snapped in and we're just going to do the same with
the other side okay
your next step is you're gonna insert two vertical rods inside
the side flaps now these would come from your previous
soft top these are tucked up inside the same area there's just an open sewn
envelope in the back where these are placed and you would simply do the
same thing is taking them out
they simply slide up in place you'll feel it seat
you can only go in so far put a little bit of weight
down on the side panel and you'll see that you have the same effect as what we
had up front it's a solid plastic strip
and that's gonna tuck into this rib already built into the vehicle
we pull down tuck in
and put a little weight to fold it up in there
and just work your way down you're not going to get the whole thing in one shot
and there we are
that's our side panel now again you'll see we're
tucked in nice and tight all the way around it this also helps for weatherproofing
and we're going to do the same to the other side okay so now we have the
front attached across the top of the windshield
we have the side panels in place we have the vertical bars in place
and now we're going to try to attach the rear now
this is going to be tight and you'll notice that what we've done is because
we didn't have the convenience of a nice hot summer day today
I've put a heat lamp in the back to the vehicle pointing up
and gave it about twenty five 25 minutes to
half an hour let it get a little bit warmer that does make the top somewhat
more pliable
again if you doing this yourself I would definitely suggest this as
because with the helper it is much easier so essentially what we're going
to do now at this point is the same as what we do with the side panels
on these back panels you have two plastic strips
the smaller one being on the side will attach here
this one will attach here and that will just lock down the back corners
now to make it easier they have added
these little pull straps and you can get some weight down behind them
and I find that if you take the plastic and point it down
push it up against the vehicle
and then get your weight behind it
you can essentially
push down on the bottom
and you'll see that the plastic pops right up in place you take the strap
and to make it easier for alignment for the window
pull this over so that the edge of your roof
is even with this welded seam right here and you'll see how
much nicer it fits when I do so and then you have in a straight line we'll get into
the windows in a little while
for now we're just gonna show how to finish the top
Now again here we have two pull straps
and again we'll pull down to try to get the
get the plastic strip below that rib
okay so now essentially we have the main section of the top on
and we've got the other side clipped in on the bottom I will tell you
that this is the hardest part of the job you are now taking the entire top and
this does have to be stretched to hook up downed into these lower tabs
these little pull tabs they give you are very strong so
I would suggest yourself and definitely would ask for an assistant
with the two of you you should be able to for this down and
pop it on give a little time just to stretch out
and then we're gonna put the windows on next okay so now we have our top on
everything good and tight on all four corners Arctic rib in place
so now we're going to put the side panels on for the glass
we've got a nice smoke glass side panel
you're going to have one for each side and then you'll also have a panel for the rear
now to identify which side your panel goes on
you'll notice we're on the right side rear
the zipper for the top row and for the front
will be facing you and the zipper for the rear
will be tucked in behind the back panel
you have velcro tabs that'll help
attach all the panels to each other and keep it down in place while you're going
down the road
and it's a fairly simple attachment you're gonna start on the top
make it easier you'll pull this side panel rib off
now lift up so that you can access
your zipper up in here you can see your zipper
is built onto a flap that tucks in underneath
there's your velcro on the roof that's gonna attached to this piece it's gonna
hold it in place
and so it's just a matter of getting the zipper started
a little tight and again if you have an assistant that can
hold it up at a place for you ever make it that much easier
just get it in so that it's fairly snug start it just like any other zipper
Tuck up inside and continue all the way across
Make sure the flap that the roof zippers on is
tucked in behind
so that it doesn't jam up and then just push it all the way over so it's
snug attach your velcro
and then for the sides zippers run from the bottom
up so again just tuck in
attach your velcro
you can reattach your side panel which just pops right in
the back section and we just simply need to attach our rear
okay so now you can see that the glass is in place we tucked the plastic in
underneath
and again as I keep repeating this is is a much easier job if you have an
assistant to help you the pull tabs are on here so that you can pull this down
and it's just simply tuck the plastic and I have found it
individually that if you have a hard time talking this and you can take a
soft rubber mallet
and once you get one corner tucked in you can work it all the way down the end
and then we'll tuck in
you can say you got a nice tight fit the velcro holds the outer panels
it's fairly water from setup much tighter fit in any other top to find out there
in the market the bestop I think
does really look attractive on these tops and they do hold up very well
okay so now we have our three windows in place the two side panels
back panel all zippered in now two last steps to this installation
you have a crossbar the fits in across the bottom of the
rear window
you'll see on the bottom of the window you have a tubular
rubber strip that runs right along the bottom and what that will do
is slide inside this group right across the back bar
now we find the easiest is after you install the windows
you partially pull the zipper on this side on the back window
and on this rear window on the right side which is easiest to access
situate your bar the way it's going to go in this groove
that the tube sits in is going to face the back in the vehicle
and this slotted area is going to fall into two brackets
that are mounted on the body on each side so we're simply gonna just
slide in through the opening you can reach in right around window
and this is what makes it so easy
then basically by feel you're going to install that
tube in slide the bar
right across the back window
mostly in place
have the belt you've released the velcros at the bottom turn the bar forward so that
the installation groove is facing you
and then if you look right here
this is one of the two brackets that are mounted on the body
and essentially you're just going to with the grove in place
and pop it in
Pull your zipper down from the back panel latch the velcro
velcro on this side
and reset the zipper on the right rear panel
all the velcro is squashed down in nice and tight
nice fit isn't going to rattle around while you are going down the road
okay
so now the very last step you probably would have noticed earlier that after you
put the top on
you had a piece for the rubber molding hanging out at the top
on both front doors now right according to the instructions we're going to take a
number two pencil
simply make a marker line
that puts you flush with the top edge in the door
I like a pencil better than a pen pencil seems to show up better on the rubber
and then just simply pair of scissors cut it off flush
and we get a nice tight even fit
looks clean there you have it
that's the installation of a top so if you're looking to replace your top on
your defender 90
or if you're looking to do a summer switch from hardtop the soft top
you can buy these Bestops through us here at RoverParts.com
or you can call a more knowledgeable salesman at 1 800 533
2210