Soft Top on 4-door Big Bend has honeycomb appearance between clamps

[RWBigBend21]

My dealer is investigating my Soft-top issues. No water leak but I can hear asymmetric sounds from passenger side rear corner over 40 MPH which is not the normal diffuse air sound over the top which is to be expected.
Also, between the soft top header clamps it arrived with a honeycomb-like or snake skin abrasive surface . See pics. Anyone else experience this or have insight ? My Big Bend otherwise is excellent.
Thanks.

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[Toccoa]

It comes worn out looking? Apparently, Bronco tops are like stone-washed jeans.

 

[lobbs611]

At first glance, having worked in plastics before, I was going to hazard a guess that that was not an "appearance critical" surface and was left in its post mold/trimmed state . But it definitely looks like the surrounding surface is a polished finish as it comes out of the mold and it's been ground or sanded on. Maybe because something wasn't clearing properly so they removed some material from the face of that piece? Hard telling why it looks that way or why they felt the need to go after that surface. But it definitely appears to be a user facing piece and should be of a proper finish.

 

[604Bronco]

It comes worn out looking? Apparently, Bronco tops are like stone-washed jeans.

We’re supposed to pay extra for this, right??

Rips also add more value, like jeans…

 

[Hey19]

Reminds me of the plastic you find on a 20 year old car sitting in the junk yard here in the southwest. Not good....

 

[Afro]

Looks like fiberglass strands thats visible through the resin. And its been known that the honeycomb pattern is visible in the interior of the MIC top, especially in the sidewalls of the rear half so it makes sense if some of the soft top portion was constructed in the same fashion.

Now if that was visible on the exterior like what we've seen so far then i would raise a red flag

 

[BaseSquatch]

Does Webasto make the soft-tops too?

 

[HotdogThud]

Does Webasto make the soft-tops too?

Negative, it's some other entity. I did hear that Webasto is looking into making a 10R70 though.

 

[Bronkers]

Looks like fiberglass strands thats visible through the resin. And its been known that the honeycomb pattern is visible in the interior of the MIC top, especially in the sidewalls of the rear half so it makes sense if some of the soft top portion was constructed in the same fashion.

Now if that was visible on the exterior like what we've seen so far then i would raise a red flag

Looks like the travelling demo I saw at dealer a long time ago. I was surprised but I don't think there's a flaw here, cosmetic or otherwise. Fiberglass-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) just looks that way where the resin doesn't accumulate all the way thru at the mold faces.

If they had hit the '+ more resin button' at the factory you'd have either a weaker top, or a heavier top, or both, just so that when you look up there every once in a blue moon, you feel like your *convertible soft top* on your *go anywhere, do anything SUV* looks a little more finished. Unnecessary.

The 'asymmetric noises' are a different matter tho.

(And having this appear, inconsistently, on the exterior of a hard top=definitely unacceptable.)

 

[ladeda]

I have the 4-door Big Bend and have the same honeycomb appearance on the plastic header. Doesn't bother me as it just looks like the way the fiberglass was formed. I also have some rattling on the rear passenger side which started after I had closed the soft top and forgot to secure it with the clamps at night. The next morning I was just heading out to work, just about 15 mph and the wind caught under the soft top and pulled it back to open - scared the s**t out of me! Won't do that again! It seemed to handle it fine, but since then there's been a passenger side rattling that I've been problem-solving with some foam pieces here and there. Took it to the dealer and they weren't able to isolate it either. It sounds like metal on metal to me. I think it's just working out the issues with the new soft tops and doing a little problem-solving over time. To me these are all small issues, well worth the joy I get from driving the car.

 

[JohnnyBronco]

The sound is probably wind entering between top of side window and actual top. It will not stay 100% velcroed and there is no room for a normal person's hand to reach over the roll bar and push out while pushing in to secure better

 

[Bronco cat]

It’s normal. Move along nothing to see here.

 

[Jordanyoung]

Mine has the honeycomb type pattern.... I didn't think anything of it... Is it not supposed to look like that??

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