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2021 Ford Bronco Soft Top Issues Include Excessive Wear, Roll Bar Rubbing

We’ve recently talked about the four-door Bronco First Edition owned by The Fast Lane on autoevolution, a $63,200 overlander with a rattly hardtop and a headliner that’s already peeling off. Unsurprisingly for a first-year model, the soft-top roof has a few problems of its own.
2021 Ford Bronco Soft Top issue 27 photos
Photo: Berwolf on Bronco6G
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Bronco6G member Berwolf highlights that his Bronco’s canvas top is rubbing on both sides, and the driver side has worn through after only four weeks of taking delivery. After some troubleshooting, the owner discovered that his soft top “can fold under the frame and rub against a piece of plastic.”

Another forumite, Cousin Eddie, reports that his top has been down all the way a couple of times already, and he’s already noticed two rub marks on the roll bar. He also mentions lateral play in the frame of the roof, which is why the frame can rub when closing if the top isn’t lifted perfectly even.

Steelbama writes that he saw a demo vehicle a few days ago, a soft-topped Wildtrak, and it showed rubbing in the same area. The question is, what can Bronco owners do in order to stop the premature wear and bar rubbing?

Bbarnshaw had a chat with a dealership who gave him two solutions: black tape or clear protective tape on the roll bar. Unless the Ford Motor Company adds tape from the factory or completely redesigns the soft top (which is very unlikely), they’ll have a lot of paint jobs on their hands under warranty.

I can already imagine Stellantis North America executives laughing out loud while browsing the forums, and I can’t blame them. The Wrangler is by no means the highest-quality 4x4 out there, especially if you glance over the number of recalls on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website. But still, many people were expecting the Blue Oval to learn from Jeep’s many mistakes and iron the kinks out before starting production.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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