When I removed the whole power top motor and lines in my car, I noticed that the rear inner/outer quarter panel seams were smashed flat and a felt pad strip was glued over it (picture attached)

Well that seemed odd to me, so we removed the felt strips and bent the seams back up so they are straight up and down.

Well, I now have a convertible top that has small tears on the rear sides and I have determined that they are being caused by the seams.

My question to those of you out there with a convertible...did the factory smash down the seams flat so this would not happen? Or are mine just too sharp/high?

Upset this happened, but it makes for an interesting question.

That's a drag! I was looking at mine the other day and wondering why they were bent.

Correct. Factory finish to create room for the top when folded down.

We discovered this on my '67. We replaced the inner and outer wells, left the seams up (the way the parts come) and top would only close 80%. Shop spent the next couple of hours beating on the seams to flatten them. Crawled up in there on my '68 and sure enough, flattened seams. You may not remember, but I mentioned this to you and your body guy way back when. He must have remembered...