Can you "fix" a bad top install?

I had to remove a zillion staples from the tacking strips when I put in a new rear curtain, most of them did not come out without breaking, and each end had to be worked out with a dull pair of nippers.
It would have been impossible to find any open spaces put in new staples otherwise.
No one before me had ever bothered to take the time and effort.
I was too poor to buy new tacking strips at the time,