T-top conversion....hmmmm....

[FE3X CLONE]

Great posts guys! Your definitely swaying me in that direction...

I did some rear seat bracing to the car but will probably do more.

I actually uses 18ga sheetmetal and completely filled in the opening between the passenger compartment and trunk:

Then on the back side I welded in a cross brace similar to the above cross bracing. But like I said, I may add some of the bolt in cross bracing as well just to be safe.

We also had to replace my entire trunk floor with a another from a donor vehicle. When that was done, it really strengthened the body since we welded all the seams of the trunk floor. It was amazing how much that helped compared to the way the factory did it with just a few spot welds.

Blake pretty much hit it on the head how I'd plan to do this. The easiest thing to do is cut the roof at the A,B and C, pillars. I can tell you right now its would be EXTREMELY tough to cut out just the center section of the T-Tops and go that route. Welding on the middle of a roof panel is virtually impossible! I had decided I was going to fill my sunroof opening in back when I had my car on the rotisserie. I bought a roof section from another car and traced the opening out onto it. Then started tacking everything into place.
By the time I had a few tacks in place I had already warped the roof around the sunroof opening! And I didn't have a whole lot of heat into it.

Oh, I have another Pro: Less headliner!

 

[mr evil]

Do it! I loved them. Only downsides were glass storage when the tops were off and the backseat of the car became like a bucket with tons of air flowing in, but not out as quick. Rear seat passengers really get blasted but with your motor I don't think you'd notice any drag. Wind noise is marginal if you do it up right.

I've been enjoying your build and think you got a thing of beauty there. It needs those T's 8)

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Okay, so here's a question. Is the T-top weather stripping still somewhat easy to come by?

My neighbor just stopped by this morning and we got to talking about it. I wanted to make sure he's chopped a top before and confirmed he had. In fact his son just got done chopping a top on an old Ford pickup.

When I told him that I'm not actually chopping the top but just swapping one for another he talked like that'd be pretty easy. We just have to measure, measure, measure.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Do it! I loved them. Only downsides were glass storage when the tops were off

Yeah, that's the biggest headache with them. My brother's '81 has T-tops and it gets old everytime you want to take them out you have to put them in their bags and lay them in the trunk and hope they don't get damaged.

I think if I do this , I'll come up with some sort of bracket in my trunk that I can snap them into that will hold them securely. Similar to the 4th gen F-body's.
I'm also thinking that I'd make some sort of fiberglass mold of the T-top glass so that I could make a couple of sun shades. Upholster them to match the headliner and make it so they'd just snap into place.

I've been enjoying your build and think you got a thing of beauty there. It needs those T's 8)

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

 

[85olds4spd]

I have changed the roof skin on my cutlass. It was not very difficult just time consuming. You will need a spot weld cutter, grinder with cutoff wheels and a welder. You cannot tell it was ever done and i'm not an auto body man. I also was going to upgrade to t tops from a doner car but I had not tops and it was more for the roof section. You will need to use the t top bracing from the doner then put the t skin on.

I used a sawsall to cut the roof off

new skin installed.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

You will need to use the t top bracing from the doner then put the t skin on.

Actually I plan to do what you did in this pic:

I used a sawsall to cut the roof off

I'll cut both roofs off and then weld the new roof on at the A,B and C pillars.

Thanks for the photos. I'd consider doing that with my car if I had access to a hard top car. But since I have the T-tops, I figured I might go that route.

 

[shotgun]

85olds4spd, that's the right way to do it.

I did an Fbody a while back. You don't want to just cut the roof from a donor car, you take it apart the same way the factory put it together. Then reverse the procedure when installing.

I added a 1/2 steel bar inside each A pillar for extra strength also.

I will see if I can dig up some pics.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

I'd be interested in seeing those pics.

So you took a hard top F-body and converted it to a T-top car?

I guess I'll have to remove the interior trim from my parts car to get a better idea of how the T-top roof is put together.

 

[shotgun]

First was to use the hot wrench and a wire brush to remove "the lead". The spot welds were all drilled out.

Here the old roof is gone. The channel that was filled with lead got a plate welded in it making the whole thing one solid piece of metal and very little putty work.

This is the Apillar unwrapped. Kinda hard to describe but the inside of the Apillar is part of the body tub and the outside is part of the roof panel.

Here is the donor roof (black), rewrapped around the (orange) Apillar. You can see where the edges get rewrapped like a door skin. You can also see the tip of the 1/2" bar I added inside threw the 1/2" hole.

Done. You can see a couple of plug welds that attach the hole deal to the 1/2" rod for strength.

 

[85olds4spd]

What ever you do, do not cut both roofs off, just the doner. only cut the skin off the car you are fixing. Then I would cut the skin off the doner to reviel the frame work. Weld the frame pieces in, then cut the old out if you can and remember to measure ofter.