Replacing carpet and top, but I've caught the "While I'm in there" bug!

You could use some POR15 and then Lizard Skin the floor pan. I am going that route since I have to "repair" that surprise bullet hole in my lower front firewall.

I have used Lizard Skin on my Cooper Works and a couple of older muscle cars I have owned. You will need to spray on the stuff and I suggest doing the ceramic heat blocking and a layer of the sound dampening stuff. You can layer them but give it a day or so between layers.

If you find a retractable hard top, powered or even better, a manual one, i will give you, or anyone else, a bounty. Um, when i buy my replacement. Won't be anytime soon, hopefully. But hurricane season is coming, so who knows...

Maybe i will take your old skeleton off your hands if you are anywhere near me and try my hand at making a fiber one. I haven't yet studied the mechanism in detail, probably unworkable, but it is still a good frame for a mold for the closed position and locates the windows. Even if i could just harden the portion that is visible when the top is open, it would be an improvement.

I dunno, I've never done fiberglass or carbon fiber work. I bet i will just make a mess, waste a bunch of money and piss off Frog Mom for using my time unwisely.

TopsOnLine is good. There are only, I believe, 2 brand name and then small companies such as TopsOnLine. I got a TOL. Good quality. Not all holes were installed. I used a pointy punch to move the thread creating a ‘hole’ versus poke a hole. The TOL uses a plastic/vinyl border on the window. Nice touch EXCEPT when closed the top lightly rubs the bottom corner of the plastic window border and polishes the fabric at the contact point.

As far as insulation, here is my abbreviated version - think of sound in high, medium and low range. The insulators get rid of the tin highs pretty effectively they have little energy and don’t travel through stuff. Insulation does little to some for the medium but the deeper the note and stronger the energy the less effective. Insulation does absolutely nothing for the lows.   Nothing (!) but physically dense bulk gets rid of the low and even then...  Sound, particularly medium and mild low go around anything but full encapsulation. In conclusion, insulate door skins and hood.  Lows are effectively untreatable given the space limitations of our cars. IMHO there is little else you can effectively do in a raw tiny convertible. Just my two cents.

Posted by: @nottamiata

1. If you find a retractable hard top, powered or even better, a manual one, i will give you, or anyone else, a bounty. Even if i could just harden the portion that is visible when the top is open, it would be an improvement.

2. I dunno, I've never done fiberglass or carbon fiber work. I bet i will just make a mess, waste a bunch of money and piss off Frog Mom for using my time unwisely.

1. Go ahead and Google it...maybe something will pop up! Do you mean the "fabric/vinyl"? Coat it with a "glue", or clear coat, but then the top doesn't go down...is that really what you want? Why not just by a hard top?

2. A while back, someone made a hard top...it was kinda squared. IMO, it didn't look good, but I give the guy credit for trying. Just make an estimate of the costs to do this, then send the money to me. I promise I'll do good things with it 😀 🍺 🍸 🍕 🍾 🍔 🍷 🍟 🥂 

Yeah, new rule... never post during Happy Hour.

But I did actually take a look at my top with this lofty goal in mind. Verdict: That would be hard. I like a challenge, but I am not a masochist. The angles just arent right. There are three segments, and that alone seems to have potential, but the side window locations don't look to be harmonic with those three segments with stiff panels. Our soft top is kinda... complicated?

No, it's REAL complicated 🤯 ...BUT, it looks great, up or down(even with "ears").

I've given thought to making a hard top...I'm a tinkerer...but don't have the $$$'s nor material experience. Maybe someday...

Hey, Sam.  FWIW, I just did dynamat (several similar products available) on the floor of the cockpit -- covered it.  Then,  upon Mike V.'s recommendation,  i used the left over bits and pieces to dampen areas in the frunk and front fender wells.  That made a big difference for my ears.   Some day I'd like to finish the job and do the doors . . . Which I will likely hire a car stereo store to do.   Hard top also makes it more quiet inside,  but that's another story. 

I too found the "slight rust" around the seat bolts on the floor pan.  I used an orbital sander to get down to base metal.  Then used spray primer and paint to cover.  NOTEWELL: If you want to use Rustoleum, you have to use it for both the primer and the paint.  When I have attempted to use different brands of paint with Rustoleum, the results were very poor.

Hey, thanks for all the replies everybody! so it sounds like the sound deadening isn't a magic mute button on the car, and that's fine. If it makes a dent, I and my GF will be happy with it.

Also thanks for the tips on the rust. I'll get some sta-bil rust inhibitor for an undercoat, just in case, and then some silver paint over it. weirdly, it's only in the driver's seat. I think the driver's window was left open in the rain in a past life.

So, it sounds like TOL makes a half decent top? it is $100 cheaper than everything else, so that is super tempting... Well, I'll give myself a couple days to think about it.

Ya know, I've thought about an auto lowering top. For a lowering hardtop though, it would have to be automatic, or at least extremely damped, to stop it from pinching fingers. It would also have to be pretty heavily segmented, possibly removing the back window benefit, and would remove all storage space in the rear bins.

Replacing the carpeting is a good move but when you decide to add sound deadening its not a free modification. You can add a good amount of weight.

I believe the Spyder carpet with the stock fiber fill underneath it is a good chunk of weight already. I thought about removing just the padding but I couldn't live with the noise so I left it alone and think its just fine.  If you get an exhaust it will just negate whatever gains you get at sound reduction.  

While I was out there pondering my lofty idea, beer in hand, it struck me that it could possibly be converted to a targa top, and the removable panel could be stored in the frunk.

Again, I had a beer in my hand, so I was unable to take measurements. It was just a few minutes of Happy Hour woolgathering.

@nottamiata

I think, "I had a beer in my hand," is also how Einstein prefaced his theory of relativity 😉 

Posted by: @nottamiata

While I was out there pondering my lofty idea, beer in hand, it struck me that it could possibly be converted to a targa top, and the removable panel could be stored in the frunk.

Again, I had a beer in my hand, so I was unable to take measurements. It was just a few minutes of Happy Hour woolgathering.

NM, anything that's "hard", body/structure/hardware-wise, is going to add weight, something a stock Spyder doesn't need. Also, I seriously doubt there is enough room in the frunk for a removable top section.

I was actually wondering how much room exists between the hood and the plastic frunk cover.

As a casual driver, I am unconcerned with adding "a few" pounds, even that high up.