The top on my 55 goes up ok in warm (read that hot)weather but in the spring and fall when you might find yourself getting cold or wet and need the top up the vinyl /canvas shrinks or stiffens enough that it takes a couple of people to wrestle the damn thing forward and down enough to get the latches to catch, I could use about a 3/4 inch or more slack mostly on the passenger side to help ease the strain and pain.

I'm not sure as where to attack this problem, I released (loosened) the band at the rear that holds the top fabric to the car and tried to gently punch the top and get a little slack but have no idea if this is the correct method or not. Anyone ever done this before and am I even working on the correct end of the car? My fears are that the top will look like a bag of walnuts if it's to lose or I'll get the parallelogram affect if both sides aren't square . Any thoughts or help, anyone been there done that.....Tedd

 

I hate to say this, but from what I know of later tops, the only way to losen it is to remove the tacks at one end or the other (or both) and re-tack it in a different position, which is probably not actually possible to do.
You can always go tighter, which gives you a bit of extra material, but going looser would, at the very least, create a row of holes along part of the top.

- Eric

 

Eric there are no tacks that I see at the rear only about 8 bolts that appear to hold the back strap to the fabric and then attach it to the rear boot area. Maybe I can get a picture or two tomorrow....Tedd

 

And that could be the sort of early / late difference that renders my opinion useless here.

- Eric

 

The canvas top on my 60 impala would shrink when cold and be difficult to latch,but when hot or warm was a lot easier i thought this was normal.