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12-25-2004 07:26 AM #2
I run a set of folding top irons and oak bows from Wescott.
I believe they are made by Lebaron-Bonney and a touch cheaper there. (Part stainless and part painted.)
You can see a pic of the top on my 32 in the "New Guys" forum.
Just look for C9X.
The irons fold up just fine and if you leave the middle part unfolded and let the top's top section point straight up it will clear the roll bar. (The car has a 2 1/2" x .120 wall four point roll bar and it fits up under the top, behind the seat back cushion and there is no body cutting.
After you get it vertical, then you can fold it down to the normal location
The rear window is in the normal place and the rear view mirror view is unimpeded - cept for the smallness of the window.
Lebaron-Bonney will install the rear window, but it may be better if you do it.
That way, you can set the window height where you require.
Rear window installation is probably the most critical aspect of the top install. Don't cut the window opening out until the very end of the installation process.
Window install is one of the first things you'll do because the back panel goes on first.
The top proper is a kit from Lebaron-Bonney.
Hartz black cloth and it's a quality piece that's not hard to install.
(Only thing different I'd do with the top install is to buy or borrow an air stapler and use that instead of the copper carpet tacks supplied with the top. I did have to backtrack a couple of times and ended up running out of tacks, but was able to find aluminum carpet tacks at Home Depot. You don't want the blued tacks as they will rust and stain the top material after a while. All told, the top took about ten hours of easy work to install. It's not difficult, just read the instructions, then pull the pieces out of the box and ID them as you read the instructions again.
Tools required, upholstery tack hammer, Stanley (or Sears) staple/tack remover (looks a bit like a forked end screwdriver), pair of scissors and a few single edge razor blades.
Be very sure you cut what you want to cut when using the razor blade. There will be layers of top material at the end and you usually want to cut only the top layer.
Plus, don't let the blade wander into the top material off the oak bows. This is especially important when cutting the excess material on the rear oak bow.
One nice part about the oak bows is you can use masking tape to mock them in. In fact, I used electricians tape to mock the varnished bows in and drove around with them that way for a couple of days to see how the height etc. was gonna work out.
Use many strips of 3/4" masking tape to sorta duplicate the top material after the irons and bows are on. That will give you a good idea of how the top will look.
After deciding on the top shape - controllable by placement of the oak bows on the top irons - use #10 stainless sheet metal screws to install the oak bows.
I have about 35,000 miles on my top and a lot of it was at 70+ freeway speeds.
Top tautness can be increased a touch by tacking the front part to the windshield header bow with 3-5 tacks.
Chalk mark the tack locations and remove them.
Then crack the top open and pull the top material forward a bit (1/2 - 1") from where it was with the first set of tacks and tack it on again with 5-7 tacks.
Latch the top to the windshield posts and see how the tautness bit goes.
It will be tight, but not too tight.
It'll loosen up after a few miles as well.
Other recommendations - make a couple of lathe turned aluminum plugs to smooth out and remove the sharp point on the stock style w/s posts.
This will help if you have a cockpit cover or simply toss a tarp over the cockpit for weather protection.
Get a stainless allen bolt - standard head - and turn a point on it to match the w/s post hole where the stock style clamp bolts the top on.
The point should be sized to match the w/s post hole.
If there is an aluminum piece in the w/s post, drill it to accept the allen bolts pin shaped end.
This is a lot better way to retain the top than the stock shallow pointed Ford-style wing bolts.
I did have one side of the top come open on the freeway, but due to the wedge shape of my top, it wasn't a problem.
If you order a top kit from Lebaron-Bonney more than likely you'll get one that allows the rear window panel to swing up and snap under the top's upper surface.
This is important. In hot weather it will give you lots of air flow.
Be advised that most upholstery shops that do Model A & Deuce hot rod tops use the Lebaron-Bonney kit.
You can save a whole lot of money doing it yourself.
One shop quoted me an over $900. figure for a top - and I already had the irons & bows installed.
Seems like the top price was around $400. or so about 8-9 years ago.
The shop alluded to making a custom top, but I saw a Model A roadster they did a couple of months later and it was an identical top to mine.C9
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