Ok---I took all your great advice and heated up the garage for a few hours until I was sweating, finally easing the top up and latching it. That being said, my wife commented that even when we put up the top every couple days in the summer, it ALWAYS takes 2 people and is very hard to pull and latch down. Is this common? Is there some sort of adjustment that makes it easier and possible for one person to do so? More direction, please!! Jimmy o No:
If you haven't already done it I would recommend a WD40 spray down of the top cyl, all of its pivots, and all of the pivots of the top mechanisms. You'll be surprised how much faster the whole top works. I agree with the latch adj and you might want to take a look at replacing the header seal with a new softer one.