Georgia Summers (T-Top Replacement Knobs and Clips)

Being in the south, Georgia's summers can get pretty hot. When I bought this car, it did not have the sun shades which latch onto T-Tops.  Nor did it have the catch on the T-Top glass to receive the latch from the shade.  Unfortunately, Toyota no longer stocks the plastic knobs or catches and no one in the aftermarket reproduced these making these pieces highly desirable and almost worth just as much as the shade itself.  Therefore I had to do some research.  I bought a set of great condition black T-Top shades and after a tip from pyrotoxin on MR2OC.com, the solution was as easy as a trip to a NISSAN dealership!  It turns out that the same knobs and catches which are used on a older Z car are still stocked by Nissan and actually work on the MR2 as well.  A long standing and widespread problem in the MR2 community has now been solved!  Details after the jump.

So there are three total plastic pieces which are needed to attach the shades to the car.  I was missing the female receptacle (PN 73565-03P00 BASE SHADE FAST) which attached to the glass pictured right.

The knob itself is made of two different pieces which snap together, each with their own part numbers.  Here are the NISSAN part numbers for the front half which is pictured left in black.
91692-30P10 - Black
91692-30P11 - Red
91692-30P12 - Tan/Brown
91692-30P13 - Blue






The third and final piece is the back half of the knob which is shown below (PN 91693-30P00 LOCK-SHADE).  It snaps together with the front half shown above, sandwiching the sun shade between the two halves.  Shown below the Nissan piece is it's OEM Toyota counterpart which is no longer produced.  Notice how similar the shapes are.  This similarity is why the NISSAN pieces work.

 I found this solution almost three years ago.  Now, in 2011, an MR2 parts vendor is selling reproductions similar to the original Toyota manufactured pieces.  You can buy them for $10 per knob (includes the front and back halves) at twosrus.com  Or you can buy the Nissan knob described at the beginning from Partznet.com for $6.64 per knob (both front and back halves).  One option is cheaper, the other supports an MR2 community vendor.