Thread: Top for my roadster

Tweet

I don't understand the mentality on some of the forums... I think Sigmond would say some of those guys have "Rod Envy" !!!

I have noticed that when people show up with a nice Hot Rod they seem to get bashed by those who some how feel they have to prove themselves...

Glad you like it here with us!!!

Dave Brisco

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Faith, you hung in there longer than I would have. You were taking a real beating.

Don

HiboyGal---I am not suggesting that you build your own top, but for some good reading and education on the subject, check out my build from last winter.---Brian
http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21030

Hi everyone, i noticed this thread and i thought i'd post some pictures of my roadster top. Living in England we just don't have much choice when it comes to buying a top for a 32 chopped roadster. We have to make it, or go without. Guess what a lots of guys do?
I decided that i wanted a top that had i nice rake and looked a little like a Fad_T style top. It had to dismantle and assemble quickly and stow away in the trunk.
Here's what i came up with. Completed in about 2 weeks while on holiday.Take a look at the photos. The top frame has a cantilever mechanism that lines up both frame bars when lowered down. This makes it easy to store and will look neat when lowered down on the back off the roadster.
( i hope i uploaded these photos ok)

Looks very nice and functional.......good job.

I got to this thread late but it is of interest to me since I ordered a Brookville 2" chop windshield frame and top bows from Brookville in July. I have yet to receive it all although I did get the oak cockpit rim tack rail (installed) and a set of top bow metal mounts which my 'glass body did not have (now installed). I spent the last two days in the garage working on patching my 'glass firewall after I cut out the huge trans tunnel of the Bebops body to make room for my foot on the accelerator so I missed this thread until now. Hotrod Gal is an amazing person with a real Deuce while the other gals on the Forum are fixing up later model muscle cars. There should be no doubt that the comments by C9X bear much consideration and I hope to end up with the style that folds under and uses a Lexan rear window. My answer to Hot Rod Gal is to check out the Brookville catalog. They sell a stock type windshield with bows and windshield frame for a little over $1000 but I figured once I got the bows on I can go to a local top shop for the canvas. A recent comparison was $900 for a replacement top on a Chrysler Le Baron so I expect to pay about $1500 or more for a Model A top beyond the bows and then there is the matter of the windshield glass but I hope that is $200 or less. I am hoping to end up with a stock type capability to just put the top up and down as weather may be and not worry about storing the top in my crowded rumble seat which is already quite full with a gas tank seat (fendered '29 replica).

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

IMy answer to Hot Rod Gal is to check out the Brookville catalog. They sell a stock type windshield with bows and windshield frame for a little over $1000 but I figured once I got the bows on I can go to a local top shop for the canvas. A recent comparison was $900 for a replacement top on a Chrysler Le Baron so I expect to pay about $1500 or more for a Model A top beyond the bows and then there is the matter of the windshield glass but I hope that is $200 or less. I am hoping to end up with a stock type capability to just put the top up and down as weather may be and not worry about storing the top in my crowded rumble seat which is already quite full with a gas tank seat (fendered '29 replica).

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

It may help if you make a windshield glass pattern yourself.
Masonite works well.
Saves the glass guy some work which equals $$.

Far as the top goes, you may find that an upholstery shop is ordering in the Lebaron-Bonney kit and doing the installation with it.

I saw several roadsters with tops in the San Joaquin Valley in Central California where I used to live.
Every one was an L-B top and installed at an upholstery shop.
Nothing wrong with that if the shop charges a reasonable price, but when they allude to having made the top themselves....

Thing is, the L-B tops are a simple project that you can do yourself.
Trick is, read the directions.
Get the top components out and ID them.
Read the directions and study them as you go.
Then go out to the shop, having made sure you understand the directions - which ain't all that difficult, just want to go in the right order - and get started.

When you lay the top pieces out for ID, use a carpeted floor . . . if you don't have a long-haired white cat....

Mel Chave, That is an amazing piece of work on your top! The hoops look like aluminum but are pinched down so maybe they are solid rod instead of tubing? I did not think much about how a LeBaron-Bonney top would look as far as a forward rake on the back but I wonder if that can be achieved by shortening the mounts on the back bow to bring it forward? C9x, thanks for the link to LB, the kit is only aorund $500 and worth thinking about my own installation. I like the Lexan rear quarter windows for winter and I suppose they could be used even with the Gypsy style rear triangle that follows the rear bow as Chave shows. As I recall the total restoration approach would have small side curtains over the outside of the bow. Can Chave comment about visibility with the Gypsy style? It looks to me that while the open space is less you can still see as far back to the side with the lower triangle covered.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don
You can call me Mel BTW (i prefer that).
I never noticed any visiblity problems with having the top up, but our road system is very different to yours(we don't have huge intersections!). I have side windows for when the weather turns really bad which is quite often here, lol. These actually cover over the open triangle piece of the roof, there is less visibilty but it's never a problem for me.
The nice thing about this top is it cost me 200quid (thats about 350 dollars at the present exchange rate) and no-one else has a top like it. The tubes are steel closed down and welded. I look at the prices of boptops and LB tops It would cost even more to import!! and i think i came up with a cost effective solution thats looks nice and as very functional.
I see no reason why anyone with certain skills (thats most people if they can build hot rods ) couldn't make a similar one, it wasn't that difficult.

Originally Posted by Mel Chave

Don
You can call me Mel BTW (i prefer that).
I never noticed any visiblity problems with having the top up, but our road system is very different to yours(we don't have huge intersections!). I have side windows for when the weather turns really bad which is quite often here, lol. These actually cover over the open triangle piece of the roof, there is less visibilty but it's never a problem for me.
The nice thing about this top is it cost me 200quid (thats about 350 dollars at the present exchange rate) and no-one else has a top like it. The tubes are steel closed down and welded. I look at the prices of boptops and LB tops It would cost even more to import!! and i think i came up with a cost effective solution thats looks nice and as very functional.
I see no reason why anyone with certain skills (thats most people if they can build hot rods ) couldn't make a similar one, it wasn't that difficult.

A very nice top it is.
The tops lines - design, flow etc. - look good.

I was wondering if you sewed it up at home, what kind of sewing machine - industrial or home - and if the canvas is what's usually used for convertible tops.

What sewing machine??? careful now or we'll bore the others to death. It was made with a home machine. The canvas is called 'duck' 2 layers make it 'double duck', very easy to sew. Even a gal could do it.
The canvas is used on cars of all vintages. It's not the best high quality but it stretches nicely. And if i made a mistake i could afford to go and buy some more.
I styled it on an orange 32 roadster from Tuscon AZ in a streetrodder mag circa 1981-2. It had an unsual choice of engine, a V4 ford. 12spokes and big halibrands at the rear. Beautiful car, and the top was perfection.( It might have been a LB top). If i can scan a picture of it i'll post it here.

Mel