lol

and i forgot to mention the extra t-top brackets u'll have to find and buy, gotta have it perfect you know, not allowed to have anything look homemade....

Buy some 12gauge sheet metal, and make brackets out of that. You could use a dremel, or a die grinder to shape it as you need. Using body sealer/adhesive (not JB weld) you could attach it and it would work. Being that I have C&C T-tops (and no bag..) I have some interest in this.

Currently I use two thick pillows, and towel to protech the glass from scratches while they are stored in the back hatch.

I am a fan of the T-Top bag as opposed to the rear well mounting like in 4thgens. If you have anything like extra oil, jack, cross bar, or tools down there you have to move them every time you take the T-Tops off. With the bag its out of the way and can be removed while safely the bag to the garage or what not if you dont what them in the car at all when you are going for a saturday afternoon cruise.

Kevin

heh. you dont work with metal much do you?

my grandfather was a carpender, so i know wood is basicly free if you have your sources.

but.....


if you work with metal, metal is also free..... i have enough 1" tube and some 1/4" plate laying around..... i could make it for nothing...... and if you're not to chicken to ask, most steel shops, machine shops, ect, will have scrap you can have for free.... and it would work great for this project.



only downside is a welder cost more then a hammer/screwdriver.... but if you have one, or have a friend that has one, or are willing to pay someone $20ish.... you can get a couple of small welds done easily....

:lala:

For a lot of us here, we do want any modification to be perfect. That's why you see this kind of reaction. I don't want to show any mods i'm doing until they're done so people can judge a finished product (unless i'm in need of advice to complete it). I got my 3rd gen last summer and I'm still working on it... I've yet to have it on the road so i'm not accustomed to the bag or 4th gen holding system. Being unbiased going in, I would prefer the 4th gen design. I also agree that having a holder on each side of the well for the tops to securely latch into is the best idea. It doesn't take up much room when not in use and it'd hold them much tighter if done well.

i like all my mods to look factory ish... like they belong there..... so that if it wasnt for the glossy paint, or some other thing thats "too nice" for the factory, then people would think its stock.



in anycase id do what i did with my 82 before i used a 2x4...
i put a blanket down, then set a TTop down, then folded the blanket back over and set the 2nd ttop down.

yeah well the new deisgn i made up is quite different. I gotta ask my mom if i can use the jig saw though......



Shane

C&C t-tops..... what are those. Was that the kit people had to convert a hard to to T-top???



Shane

I myself prefer the bag, but to each their own.

Aside from covering it as previously mentioned, I think that would be a lot better if you put that between the sides of the cargo area, rather than screwing it on top.

Also I think if you use something smaller than a 2x4 it'll look a lot better.

and it would look even better if you cut it like pictured below... then carpeted it so noone knew it was a 2x4.

Yeah it was a quick sketch, I was just giving the general idea.

If you used my sketch, the board would be floating in thin air.

oh yea..... well one word:



magnets.

That 2"x4" also double as the prop rod for the hood?

or Bose-Einstein Condensate

thats atleast two words..

lol, actually, i was going to put down somthing about using the motor to super cool, ect...... and then poke fun at the fact that my 305 probly doesnt make enough power to do that.... but then i realized that 99.9% of the people reading it wouldnt get it anyway.


so i changed it to magnets

you guys stole my idea, i had planeed on that one. Man!!!!!!!!!!!



Shane

oh and the width of the 2x4 is required so that the glass doesn't hit each other and make noise/rattle....


Shane

My friend has aftermarket ttops and his are stored down in the well with straps of somesort....it's been awhile since I've seen it.

I personally hate the ttop bags. It's too much time and effort. (because I love to have the tops off, but alot of my trips are short with lots of stops, so that means everytime I get out or into my car taking off or putting on the tops and storing them. I've even tried using the velcro ones, and it seems even more difficult. When I took my back seats out I flipped the ttop bag around so that I could put the ttops in them without opening the hatch...seemed to help a little....but it's just a huge pain in the ***. This is why I have 4 sets of ttops. An extra set of glass and plastic that I can occassionally toss into the back or whatnot. (which I hate doing)

I am usually not one for too much modding, but what I do has to be stock appearing. So, I am interested in idea for this. If I see a finished version of something that looks like it's supposed to be there, then I might copy the idea. But have it removable so that I can take it out easy for show.

That idea that started the thread looks like it has promise....but I'd want something lighter than a 2x4 and it would of course have to be covered in capet and sitting flush.

But....it does look like there would be issues with them bouncing around with hard braking/acceleration/turning. And trust me...with the way I drive, that's way too much of a gap to hold these things tight. I actually had (very easily) a ttops fly from the back of the car and smash into the back of the front seats one time when I was braking hard.

heh well when BEC becomes commonplace THEN we can use it to levitate our t-top rack. those of us who know what it is,anyway.

You could also get the plastic piece out of a 4th gen and put it in the well, cut out where the ttops mount in there and then make brakets to fit 3rd gen ttops... might take a little time to get it in there right and cut/mold it so it didn't look out of place but if done right it would be a damn cool mod... too bad i have a hard top

Did you know that

you can edit your posts?

Yep, you can delete them too...

I don't think the 2x4 was all that bad, damn you guys rip on it like its hillbilly, just cover it with some carpet (or fur ) and it would look okay, not something I would do. Me personally, i'd mock up something involving 3 1" tubing bars that have a slide in latch on the sides that you can put a lock on.
_.........................._
|-------------------|
--.........................--
_.........................._
|-------------------|
--.........................--
_.........................._
|-------------------|
--.........................--

Just try to picture it without the dots, couldn't use spaces. That way the bar has a square end and the side walls of the well could have a |_| to slide them in, wouldn't look too bad either. Sorry for the crappy ascii art, im at work and can't use any paint programs.


Wrap them in some nice material and wallah, you have a removable t-top storage bin.

well guys, i've done so much today its not even funny. I'm Gonna convert to entire interior to black simply because i couldn't find any gray for the 2x4, So the entire interior stuff is being converted to black. Her sia pic of one of the door panels as it sits now,





I bough enough die, for the carpet, for 2 cars, but i wanted to be sure. I got 5 yeards of vinyl, but i onyl needed 1, stupid me, was 3.77 a yard though so it wasn't bad.

Totoal conversion will cost me a total of...... $25. I like the sound of that.



Shane

Well forgot to show the pic of the 2x4. Gotta sayu one thing thouhg, its covered in the fur i gotfor 5.68 a yard. But it looks pretty cool.....

I need to put leather on my door panels....

OMG, not you dont, what you saw was a 3 hour job and its still not even close to done, on that one panel. If you look closely you see parts that need to be sowed and stuff. my finger hurts so fn bad becuase i've been sowing through carbboards without a thimbole. It hurts to type.....


Shane

You could of gotten gray speaker carpet at most any car audio shop.

the blacks gonna be nicer though man, trust me.....

I got a job interview tomorow so the project will be delayed, good thing i'm on spring break thouhg....



Shane

I'll wait to form my opinion until i see the finished product.

you'll see....


Shane

boy, i thought my idea of using copper pipe and armaflex was *******. Either way have fun messing with it, but that to me does not look like it will hold the tops to well. But thats why you have extra tops right?

honestly. i cant believe you wanted to post that. granted that it appeared as a very creative and easy idea; but if you love your car and its a pleasure to drive it, what is the problem with spending a few extra seconds to put the tops in the bag that came with the car. i know that the stylings of the 80s t-top bag is not up to par with todays standards, but if you really didnt like it, you wouldn't drive a third gen.

hell i know when i drive my car on a nice sunny day, im damn sure that the tops are in the bag and secure, not thrown in the back seat or placed between a piece of 2x4 with carpet over it. talk about tacky....jeez

but good try...

lol....i didnt read the whole thing...but dude....dun worry about everybody bashing your fur and stuff...people just need to realize that different people like different things....i mean...i personally wouldnt use fur like that at least...but i mean....you did a real nice job on it....i commend your work after making my own door panels and recovering my seats and putting vinyl on some of my panels....just keep doin your own thing man.....its not like its permanent ppl geez

man shanes right u guys are to hard to get any good responses fomr if u got nothin good to say say nothin at all ok?
shane didnt have to post this and neither did u guys bein dicks bashin him over it.
at least hes doin soemthing.
he could be settin back saying yeap im a goin do that there one day u watch il do it or all talk no walk lik eyea i got a great idea ima do someday he just thinks it up n does it.
if it dont work hes only out his time n a lil cash n if he dont like it he'l redo it like i would.
i swear u guys bash him for him sayin hes gonna do stuff liek man u got any projects u gonna do or actually doin instead of talkin about em? and then when he does it yall like man thats aweful n al this crap.
i bet if he posted right now a article about swapping in a big 350 or lt1 ls1 or somethgin u guys would just nit pick him because he didnt do it exactly right like gm would.
man what a borgin world u guy smust live in.
i bet ya houses are all got vinyl siding, white walls prolly dry wall of wod paneling and or wood or vinyl floors.
ppl on here really do give tgo a bad name this place wasnt like this when i joined up.
its gotten really bad lately esp on shane.
cuz u guys know liek shane and like me we may be young but we dont bash ppl we have enough respect and manners not to. and if u guys had a ? and we knew the answer wed surely help u.
i wouldnt blame shane a damned bit if u guys bash him n then one day u ned a ? answered n nobody else answer it n shane esp since u bashed em too much.
some of u guys who bash liek this either must think u know it all or u dont do any of yur own work.
i think if u dont liek it either say no man nice effort or somethgin of that nature or say nothin at all.

no one bashes ppl cuz they put a plywood osb or mdf sub box in there car.
no one says it takes up space
ive seen many a boxes take the whole trunk up were as shane has room there.
and for ppl who got bad bags or none at all its a nice cheap idea of a way to store em other then just throwin em in someweres.
im glad i didnt post up on some the ways ive done stuff yall call me ******* n stupid for doin it which i am ******* and dont care im proud of it.
guys should just completely lay off this harsh bashing. man its aweful.
or dont waste board space typin it type it to shane himself so he can tell u what he thinks of u w/o havin to worry about whast put on this board.

one final note to all u basher n junk
u were young once i bet u didnt have perfect high dollar rides either unless mommy n daddy got em for ya.
shanes got one nice ride for a 16 yr old guy.
and young guys can build em just like old guys we just may have different tastes.
if no one tried anythgin new wed have nothin new no new cars electronics or anythgin the world woudl be as boring as some of u want it to be.
im sure ypu guys tried stuff before in yur cars or soemthgin sometime in yur life that u like n others hated or bashed u over it.

dude, we aren't bashing shane for trying to mod his car. we're not bashing him at all. at least im not, from what i gather, these guys appreciate the effort he put into his projects, but not necessarily the idea. he did great work with that headliner, but few praised him for the fur. you cant please everyone, and *most* of us realize that(except you). but the time and effort and creativity applied does not go unnoticed. think about that before you bash others for something they haven't done.

Yeah I agree I don't bash him...I've tried giving him constructive criticism and tried to portray my opinion in a well thought out way. I've always appreciated his effort...just not necessarily his taste. Its just my opinion...something he asks for when he posts post like this.

you said it better than i did

dont tell me what i know i know that we cant please everyone i dont try to either i mean damn man them other posts he put up he got bashed in almost everyone he puts up he gets bashed. i dont like it n i take up for him cuz hes a good guy n help sme out alot when other ppl dont.
i dont try to please anyone and i dont ask others to i just think theese ppl bashin should cool down or not say anythgin they just do it to get ppl mad n it works i tell ya i should watch my temper as well but man it wasnt this way when i joined n i hate see ppl do a good man wrong.
i did not intend that for any in particualr just ppl in general who bash.
its sad

i agree w/ u guys alot i praise him for his work time and effort n creative ness and yes i wouldnt do everythgin he does but some are nice.

liek his headliner its cool its fur id do it prolly in fur but its like i dont know how to explain it its not the fur just the idea behind it using another material then factory and telling ppl how ot.

liek his 2by 4 idea good idea but different choice of materials maybe not for my chioce or his but more so he wouldnt get hassled over the 2by 4 he used somethgin else proly less harsh on it.

if it was me id do somethgin a lil different but his ideas give good meaning and info and starting points to expand off of wouldnt u guys agree?

Exactly...

Just for the record, though its well documented on the site.

C&C T-tops different from the ASC T-tops. They are not factory authorised , but in my opinion have a better water run-off design as well as a better head liner. However, they are more prone to leaks where the T-top meets the A-pillar. Because they aren't ASC T-tops it makes it harder to find weather stripping for it though.

If collectability had been a concern when I bought my car I would have skipped it over because of the tops. However, I didn't buy this car to sell it down the road for more money. I bought it because it was a california car and doesn't have a spec of rust anywhere. Just fading paint.

no rust, yeah boy, know what your talking about there, no rust in my car at all..... well except two spots... easily repairible..

did this all in 2 hours(my first time)





heres the rust,

If its so easily repairAble then why did you have to make another thread asking how to fix it instead of just doing it yourself!

cause ivcould tlel they would be easily repiarible, but i didn;t know howto do it....