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Ford Bronco Soft Top Coming Apart at the Seams, Dealer's Attempted Repair Makes It Worse

The Bronco’s appeal has been hindered by a lot of problems, especially the molded-in-color hard top’s questionable build quality. But even the soft top has been trashed by owners for one too many reasons.
Ford Bronco separating soft top 11 photos
Photo: Jarmo Karhu on Bronco6G
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From excessive wear to rubbing on the roll bar and snow intrusion, the list keeps on growing. Back in May 2022, the owner of a Badlands uploaded pics of a soft top that comes apart at the seams. He was contacted by a Ford rep one day later, who asked the guy to bring his Bronco in for inspection.

Owner Jarmo Karhu vented on Bronco6G on May 26th as follows: “The service department told me that not only had they done the inspection, but they had attempted a repair and closed my case. This is what I’m left with, and it is now much worse than it was before I took it in. The repair was a complete failure. It is separating in multiple locations now. I’m beginning to honestly believe that my top may tear apart and fly off on the highway.”

Fast forward to the present day, and the issue still hasn’t been fixed. Karhu has an appointment at Galpin tomorrow morning. The fabric is now lying on the guy’s head as he drives. “Every edge is showing signs of separating,” which isn’t excusable for a car that’s less than one year old. Karhu took delivery last September, and he first identified the issue six months later.

Fellow members of the forum experienced this very problem to varying degrees, and obviously enough, they’re not happy with the problem in question. They’re not really pleased by the repair either. North7 believes that the culprit is the water-based adhesive, which is friendlier to the environment but not as good as less eco-friendly solvent-based adhesives.

“I've used 3M Super 77 on other upholstery projects and used this to fix that interior top backing issue seen in the photos,” he told fellow members. “Cleaned the light adhesive overspray with no issues. My Bronco sits outside, and the top liner has not sagged since I fixed it two months ago.”
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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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