RA080923

iTrader: (1)

Let's just suppose that for some reason... I do not have the option start over with a hard-top car... and given that I can get a roof from a wrecked hardtop car... how feasible would this be?

I wouldn't be doing the work myself BTW... would have this done by a skilled professional.

neubauej

I would say about as easy as going the other way, not easy or cheap. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear, but it is an insane amount of work on a third gen.

nolanr0413

i wouldnt do that to a thirdgen but i would do that to a 4th gen trans am 98-02 since their were no hardtop trans am . I think it would cost about 3 grand to have it done, and on a 4th gen i would do but i thirdgen, i dont think i could justify it.

RA080923

iTrader: (1)

Heh... yeah, that's ok... I value input that doesn't flame me. Thx.

RA080923

iTrader: (1)

This is just my POV, but I think they break up the clean lines of the car, the plastic ones can get scratched (which is very visible on a clear panel), are heavier than a hardtop roof, may leak (cars without SFCs mostly) and worst of all, they make 3rd gen cars floppy and bendy as hell. Even with SFCs... a t-top car cannot comapre the a hardtop car with SFCs.

But I respect your sentiment.

Cheers for the reply though.. 3 grand is quite a dollop of moolah to drop on a roof swap .

89cmrodriver

i think this time is a first, usually people wanna swap there hardtops for t tops.

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

well, going from t-top to hard top I don't see why you would have to chop the roof as you would going the other way. This is simplifying a bit, but first remove all t-top hardware including the weatherstrips and middle piece. Then you can weld a bar on each edge of the roof where it meets the window as a structural support. then weld a piece of sheet metal over the entire t-top area. The seams can be smoothed out and filled before painting. This is simplifying, but it's basically replicating the roof structure of 4th gen cars. All 4th gens have the same roof structure to start with. If it's a hard top, they weld and/or bolt supports at each edge and spot weld the sheet metal roof over it. If you do some searching around the web you may be able to find a picture of what i'm talking about.

Kontrax

you can chop the whole top of a hardtop off for the vert. you must get the dementions exact or the inshield and glass back wont fit correctly. i know a guy who cuts extended cabs off trucks and makes them a single cab so i bet he could do it. im sure a lot of places could do it if you dont have the welding and cutting skills

its an excellent idea and has been talked about for some time now. i love my hard top. had 3 t top cars and they just leak and are a pain. plus if your building power, you really do want the hard top

neubauej

The roof structure on a third gen hard-top and t-top are totally different, unlike the 4th gen which are practically the same, and are easily changed.

87CamaroMan

There's a custom roof shop near me.. I called and got an estimate on hard-top to t-top he told me about $1,000 thats with a partial paint job. he told me with out the paint job about $850.
But I am not sure if he would get the roof from the other car or I would have to get it

HamsterOnaMission

Hey, With so many people wanting to go the other way, you could probably find someone to swap cars with. Although depending on how much work you've done on your car, that may not be worth it for you.

Midnight Sun

This would actually seem pretty easy.

You would just need the roof skin from a hardtop car and a headliner, along with a welder and a grinder. Your only problem would come when you needed to align the weatherstripping and such.

Flamingo

Midnight Sun, I actually saw a place that sold blinker fluid.... I just wish I could remember where. (re your sig)

But to the topic, would welding in sheet metal panels in place of the glass t-tops give it the rigidity of an original hardtop?
IMHO, the only time I would want a hardtop is if I was building it into a power house and/or racing. But everyone has a right to their opinion

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

Neubauej,
If you really read what I posted you would see that I'm well aware of this. My suggestion was to rebuild the roof in the way that a 4th gen is to make a hard top out of a t-top car. No, it probably won't have the strength of an original hard top car, but it'd probably be a little stronger then the t-tops are. And with any roof transplant, I wouldn't expect it to be as strong as an original without a lot of work being done. If you want rigidity, the best bet is a roll cage. I was just suggesting a way to make a hard-top without having to chop the entire roof. It would still take a lot of work either way.

d_johnsen

ive seen lots of people on this board that have hardtop cars that want t-top cars, maybe u can trade chassis's

NEEDforSPEED

good call...

neubauej

I must have missed that, sorry.

wyclefsirocz

my boss made his t top car into a hard top!!!!!!!,

what he did was removed the t-tops and all the other crap with trhem. got a hard top roof. cut up the roof of the hardtop. and welded it into place. then he took some 1" tubing and creayted an x patern where old t-tops went. with one 1.25" tube running along the side. got all the hard top interor parts and it looks good as new. cost him about $1300 in parts.
$600 hard top car
$450 in new parts(pillars and rubber molding and a few other little things)
$250 for the paint.

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

Hey no problem neubauej. That's a lot of dough to get rid of the coolest part of a thirdgen! But i think you can chop a roof from a junkyard to save a lot of money. The labor on the welding and blending the roof in for paint is what'll really cost some money if you don't do it yourself. I think, like in other theads about this kind of topic, the conclusion is that it's hard to justify doing the work instead of buying one already the way you want it.

Actually let's step back for a second though... are you wanting to change for structural reasons or only appearance? because depending on your goal, you may have more or less work to do.

StocRoc

iTrader: (1)

How hard would it be to get everything to line up correctly? I know it would cost a lot of money but if a person that was really skilled in this area did it, is there any reason why it wouldn't work? Would it be noticeable when finished, or would look like a factory hard top once it was painted and all the interior trim was on.

Edmonchuck

This one is probably the best advice IMO. Unless you have the time and money to spend on this conversion, you'd probably be further ahead to swap cars with someone who wants T-Tops and has a hardtop car. Conversions like this seem to be more of a headache than they are worth.

I am not saying this conversion is impossible as a good bodyman can and will get this done for you. It is just a good time to weigh the cost/benefit or headache/results equation. The path of least resistance and bodywork headaches would be to swap cars.

wyclefsirocz

but in order to switch chassis,
are you gonna switch iinteriors, steroes, engine and trannies, rear ends. what about body panels etc..........
now if you could come to an agreement with somebody who has another car and is willing, swap out motor tranny and rear end along w/ suspsen. that will take an easy 40-60 hours to do. who will do this work. its as much work as ripping two cars apart and ptting them back together. not exactly an easy task.

Edmonchuck

...you're assuming that the person asking has done hours upon hours of work to their car, only to then hate T-Tops. You would have to really really have gone through a ton of mods to then recover a decent ROI of replacing the roof.

Change body panels? Why? Find a hardtop that you like and then move your stereo if necessary. Additionally, you can probably find a decent hardtop for sale that can become your project car, do the swaps on your own time, and then sell the chassis of the T-Top car and STILL probably come out ahead. Remember, when cutting or doing any body work, unless you’re really good, the headaches of misalignments and rattles and wind noise and lack of seals will drive you INSANE. Chevy did a good job at the factory, why do you want to re-invent the wheel?

I briefly spoke of this mod to my neighbor - probably the best bodyman I know. After he stopped laughing, he basically said WTF would you go through all that trouble for. You are just asking for trouble - can you put a price on that?

Like I said before, is this impossible - no. Does this sound like more of a project just laden with hidden gremlins and Snafu’s and headaches - yes.

..but as always, this is just my $.02.

blacksheep-1

A neighbor of mine had a tree fall on his camaro. He was able to get a new top from the dealer, then cut off the old top and replaced it with the new sheetmetal. It actually was pretty straight forward. I would highly recomend a new top over a used one that had been cut off of a car. Don't miss understand me, this guy has good tools and lots of experience working on cars, it is a lot of work, and a whole lot of measuring. But it wasn't that tough.

StocRoc

iTrader: (1)

If a really skilled body man was to do this and had a hard top car to cut the top off of and use. Where would be the best place to cut the hard top at to weld it on the the t-top car?

Kontrax

gurage. heated if possible. heated gurages are the best place for everything

StocRoc

iTrader: (1)

Umm....heh heh I was asking where on the car should be cut at, like where at on the body.

j_dog454

Just my two cents.
I have both types of cars. The hard top car is totalled aside from the roof.
The t-top car is my baby, but as someone once said, t-roofs rock, until you remove them once, then they leak forever. True in my case, and I like the look of the hard top better. My old man has been a welder/fabrication artist for over 30 years and heres his take.

Mark a + down the middle of the roof both sideways and front to back as perfectly measured center as possible on both cars. Theres gonna be painting anyways, but what you want is a center at the glass edge, on the back window and at the side windows for alignment purposes.

Once you have the lines figured, make sure you have them drawn on both cars. Now, as far as cutting, I have yet to do this on mine, but there are some basic rules to follow that apply to all cutting where a flat surface cannot be measured. The roof has curvature, that part is obvious, so exacts are out, no matter your measuring tool.

Always cut more off the donor than you are taking from the recipient, that way, SLOWLY removing material until the fit is perfect is more achievable. Even good bodymen do this.

Cut right AT THE GLASS on the hard top car for the front, and follow the curve of the glass. Use as thin of a zip cut disc as possible, and go slowly, rmoving teh disc after every 2 inches or so, to avoid overheating and warping the metal. Cut up and back away from the rear pillars and towards the hatch glass somewhere around 1 to 1.5 inches further than you intend to put into the t-roof car. Again, for slow fitting reasons.
When cutting the runner for the t-roof car out, should you so choose, when cutting along the windshield, cut as close to the t-roofs as possible, thereby leaving the top edge of the windshield frame in tact. By doing this, you will have little or no loss of shape on the windshield mounting area, and it will remain in one piece, making the windshield fit stay perfect.
The same "cut less than you are fitting in" methodoligy applies to the rear on the t-roof car. Cut straight up and across from the pillar for the rear of the doors.

Past that, removing material should be done with a lapped sandpaper disc on a handheld grinder. You'll get smoother removal, no bucking, no chewed metal and very little warpage if you go slow. Also, if drawing one cross on the roof isnt good enough, get a flexible strip of plastic molding from somewhere and draw a grid on the roof using it as a spacer. That way, you'll see all the spacing correctly, instead of just using your eye.

Speaking on the framework for the inside of the roof, I will have to closely photograph my escapade in roof transplantenometry when I do it next month.
All of the comments here have merely been theory from an experienced welder, the real test will be when we actually do the job. And I will have much more info for you all then.
-jason OUT!!

ghettocruiser

iTrader: (4)

Haha...this thread is over 3 years old... Dont feel bad I almost responded to a thread that search gave me that was from 03...

J.