Thread: Making a Convertible out of a hard top

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Ok,,,Here goes,,,,,,,I was sitting outside in the dark,,
(that should be sufficient warning to my state of mind) and i was looking at my 1962 Thunderbird 2 door hardtop,,,,,,and i began to think,,,,,"CONVERTIBLE",,,,,build it and they will come for you LoL,,,anyhow,,,,since there where so few 62 Thunderbird Convertibles built, my chances of ever owning one in the near future seems kind of remote,,,,so i looked at the lines of my 62,,and sure enough,,it looks like i could verywell make a convertible hartdtop out of her without too much trouble,,,Now the question is???,,,,
Has anyone else done one of these, or similar??
Keeping in mind that the 62 Thunderbird is a Unibody construction car,,,I believe i am going to have to re-enforce the door to rear quarter pillars to prevent body flex.
I did see four 1964's a while back on the internet, that where made into convertibles for a movie,,and the builder claimed the cars needed no re-enforcing at all.
So Fire away,,,,maybee i need a reality check.

For a unibody chassis you'd want to weld/bolt a couple beams underneath to stiffen it up, for mild street driving that should be enough. If you plan on doggin it out, might wanna do further re-enforcement just in case.

As for the hard top vert,... Depends. You could do it using the original roof with some patience & creative metal work. Or you could go the old fashioned way & make a carson top for it.
In the late 80's they had kits to make pretty much anything into a vert or a targa. It's not terribly complicated with the right materials.

I'd realy like to get a look at the body/frame components of an actual 62 convertible to see just where ford installed their bracing.
that should save me a lot of hassles in the long run.
Any thoughts on the windshield pillars???.....would they require re-enforcing too??
I must be getting seriously whacked to be even considering this,,But what the hell,,,i can dream cant i??