Lesson Learned

After yesterday’s breakfast with the MMC it was already getting hot, so for the drive home I decided to put our Cool Breeze Scoop in place. The name itself is sort of a misnomer on days like this as the air it scoops and directs into the cabin of the Miata is less than cool, but it does increase air circulation. But when you turn on the air conditioner the incoming air helps move the A/C’d around which does make it slightly cooler inside the cockpit.

When I got home and parked the car in the garage I pulled off the scoop to stow it back in the trunk. That is when I noticed that when I installed the scoop I scraped the heck out of my brand new back vinyl windshield header. I had created several 3 to 4 inch long ragged edge tears in the vinyl. Nice. 🙁 Guess we’ll be giving up the scoop.

So this morning after our breakfast run via bicycle I spent about an hour in the garage removing the damaged vinyl and replacing it. Things always go easier the second time and this was no exception, I bet it took twice as long last Sunday putting just this horizontal piece in place.

When I googled Cool Breeze Scoop this evening to get an image for this post¹ I did land on the site of the makers of the product and learned that I may still be able to use the scoop. I bought this thing in 2007 and the original mounting instructions were to insert one end of the mounting rod into the channel of the gasket that seals the windshield header to the front of the convertible top and slide it to the left while pushing down. This eases the rod in place and then you slide it back and forth a bit to seat it and line it up with the velcro tabs (this sliding is what damaged the vinyl.)

The instructions on the site now say lube up the middle 8-10 inches of the channel with Armor-All or similar and spread the channel at the ends of the rod with fingers and then push straight down. I think if I whittle a 1/16″ or so of material off the scoop where it won’t hit the header when inserted…