Ruined Regal
- Thread starter 565bbchevy
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I loved my t-tops car best of all but I could always imagine the ceiling caving in w glass shards if a structural point ever rusted out or something. Would rather take the whole top off or not do it at all personally. I think a Riviera / Toronado b-body fwd makes a much better chop-top convertible candidate. Leave our regals alone mf's!
T-top vs solid roof vs factory convertible has nothing to do with the original conversation. And time slips have nothing to do with it either, amount of flex in a factory car at factory car power levels are irrelevant. More so when you consider you are referring to a shitty handling car.
I may not be an engineer but as a building contractor I have to be able to understand structural load paths and I see a death trap. If I built you a house as structurally deficient as this cars passenger cabin you would be very unhappy.
I've crashed a structurally sound G body and know first hand how far the fire wall and a pillar can move back.
I may not be an engineer but as a building contractor I have to be able to understand structural load paths and I see a death trap. If I built you a house as structurally deficient as this cars passenger cabin you would be very unhappy.
I've crashed a structurally sound G body and know first hand how far the fire wall and a pillar can move back.
^ well said from a person who lives around real driving conditions such as uphill/ downhill grades on the turnpike. PA has a strict inspection for a reason. Those hills are no joke. If a t-top car is even 85% as structurally sound how come my hardtop cars dont make half as many irritating noises every time I go over rail road tracks?
Has anyone asked the seller about or seen underneath this car?
Or is everybody just guessing he didnt have the frame re enforced, boxed, X'd?
Or is everybody just guessing he didnt have the frame re enforced, boxed, X'd?
That's really the whole problem w/ chop tops. Kids who aren't qualified to even drink legally are somehow qualified to put plates on anything in some states, then when they come up dead us older responsible people pay for it on our insurance and plates. Keep that to yourselves though - Obama's 13 knights of the round table solution would just be to call another vehicular holocaust (cash for clunkers II) he doesnt give a fk about your cars or the attendance level at events like Carlisle / SEMA so stfu already guys. This hobby doesnt need more red tape or beuaracrats in it. Live and let die.
Because GM engineers carefully designed them unlike Mr Donk, but they are still weaker than their solid roof counterparts. Going back to G bodies, how come all factory T-top cars have rear seat bracing? Factory T-tops are know to distort from hard launches so the glass not longer sits flat and seal. Some T-topped turbo Buicks have even popped the glass right off from torque twisting the body. The reason you don't see new cars with T-tops is because they can't pass current crash standards, just not strong enough.
T-tops significantly weaken the car in torsional and lateral rigidity. That means for example that when you turn a corner, the outside front wheel which takes up much of the weight will cause the frame to bend at that corner. The same thing would happen if you started driving up a ramp with only one of the front wheels, the front end of the car will twist more than the back of the car compared to one without the T-Tops.
To explain why, if you imagine a cube made of a wire frame where the bottom wires of the cube represent the rockers and lower cross members of the car, the vertical wires represent the the door posts, A-pillars, and B pillars, and the top wires represent the roof rails, windshield header and the rear roof crossmember, then it's not hard to see why a T-Top is weaker. To make a T-top, you replace the two roof rails with a single new member connecting the middle of the windshield header to the middle of the rear roof cross member. The top corners of the car are no longer supported by three structural members at 90 degrees to each other (effectively triangulating the corner), but rather by only two. In longitudinal bending, where you try to fold the front of the car on top of the rear, it's about the same strength. In lateral bending where you try to fold the car sideways, it's obviously significantly weaker because while the rockers will resist the bending at the bottom, only a single member does so at the top. Finally, in torsional bending where you try to bend the car diagonally, the lack of two roof rails makes a big difference.
So what does it matter if your car bends? The suspension can't do it's job as well keeping the wheels pointed where you want them when the frame is contorting over bumps and in corners. It also means that gaps between body panels have to be a little larger to allow the larger relative movement between them without rubbing.
Mr Donk, doesn't have anything to connect the windshield header with the rear roof crossmember. Nothing to stop longitudinal, lateral, and torsional bending. This is besides Mr Donk's car body being put under more strain and stress than a stock G because of the oversized wheels. It is a recipe for disaster. This is all pretty basic logic really.
I refuse to even consider looking at a t top g-body for sale. They are weaker and more likely to twist and flex than a solid roof car. The t ties the back and front of the main body together. Without it the body can flex and twist and the doors can develop problems closing. Our doors are already prone to sagging and the sheet metal where the striker is, is a weak point to begin with. IMO, removing an entire section of the roof like this is a horrible idea PERIOD, unless you've done modifications to strengthen the body in other ways to eliminate the potential problems I've mentioned. I strongly doubt this guy did any homework about this let alone the work needed to make the body stronger.
What he has done is basically make his car into a convertible and did so to a car not designed or built to function as one. All convertibles are designed and built to compensate for the lack of a roof. It's why they weigh more than the hard top models and do not handle quite as well. While he didn't cut the entire roof off, which would have made the car way worse than removing just a section of the roof, he made his car less safe should it be involved in a crash. if hit head on or from behind the top of the car will accordion and put the passengers in danger. He's opening himself to a potential lawsuit by making the car unsafe and perhaps a denial from insurance even if the accident isn't his fault. Insurance companies don't like to pay out for cars that were hacked up and made unsafe by their owners. They do send out someone to inspect the vehicle when you make a claim and when they see a section of the roof missing...the owner will be lucky if they don't get dropped.
What he has done is basically make his car into a convertible and did so to a car not designed or built to function as one. All convertibles are designed and built to compensate for the lack of a roof. It's why they weigh more than the hard top models and do not handle quite as well. While he didn't cut the entire roof off, which would have made the car way worse than removing just a section of the roof, he made his car less safe should it be involved in a crash. if hit head on or from behind the top of the car will accordion and put the passengers in danger. He's opening himself to a potential lawsuit by making the car unsafe and perhaps a denial from insurance even if the accident isn't his fault. Insurance companies don't like to pay out for cars that were hacked up and made unsafe by their owners. They do send out someone to inspect the vehicle when you make a claim and when they see a section of the roof missing...the owner will be lucky if they don't get dropped.
Its a Texas rap thing that should stay in Houston TX where it actually makes sense (the a/c compressors go out and make a hardtop an un-driveable death trap) Keep TX the same; If you're from the midwest, E, PNW keep your top. I'll chop a top if I move down south but not until that day. Sure not going to sit in 90* degree traffic crawling down I-10 with a roof holding 25 degrees in to suffocate me no ty.
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