this is my idea of topping a car. this is not for every one and if you think that it is a dumb idea that please post else where. i will also let you know that this is a good reference for you crazy guys out there that take pride in moding your car and doing things your way. i take no responsibility for any of you guys that attempt this your self and ruin your car or dont weld that great resulting in personal injury. i had a professional welder doing the welding for me, and i will also have a roll cage in my car in the event that **** happens and i roll over. now that that is out of the way in doing research in topping a car there really isn't a whole lot of info out there. i know that when most people would attemp this they will section out the a pilars and b pillars into the staggered cuts and try to weld it all together. how ever if you are off by just the slightest in your messurements then lets just say you are ****ed. your glass will not fit, door glass will be off, windshield wont fit and back hatch well you get the idea. so my solution to the problem was to completely take the top off at the factory seems and put them on accordingly so that i wouldn't risk having my angles and gaps all thrown out of whack. this worked out quite well.and i will appologise in advance, because i cant figure out how to add all of the pictures in to one post so there will be alot of them to show steps and pictures of each one. once again i repeat this is a reference on how to do it. i take no responsibility how any of you that decide to do it your self and one either kill your car, or your self while doing this. step one is to remove windshield, doors fenders, back hatch next add in bracing to keep car from buckling also go and buy a spot weld cutter and a lot of tips for it. start drilling out spot welds on the a pillars

these are some more pictures of the spot welds that need to be drilled out on the a pillars

this is where you would cut the a pillars from the cowl piece. now down in between there the are three spot welds that you cannot drill out. this is where an air hammer comes in handy. when you put it back together you just run a bead of weld across the top of it, and that will be stonger that the three spot welds that were there originally, those pics will come later

this is the factory bracing that is left attached to the car, one it acts as a reference piont when lining the top back up, and secondly when doing this i tried to keep as much bracing intact in the car, and split it apart at the factory seems

now on to the b pillars
this first picture is on the inside you take out the two screws and then drill out all of the spot welds, with that removed you will find two pieces of bracing behind that that also need all of the spot welds drilled and removed. there are also five spot welds in the rear hatch run channel.

one the spot welds are drilled out and the factory bracing removed, grind the paint off of the b pillarss out side and find the factory seem. looks like they brazed it in with brass. cut along that line. stop it before it meets the door side of the b pillar, you will cut staright up from there to leave that piece of bracing there, this will also act as the brace that you will rest the new top on to maintain the correct roof height

picturs of cut along factory seem on b pillar

the next step is to remove the top and say oh **** what the hell did i just do, dont worry about that reaction, you over come it pretty quickly. this is the way that you not only remove your top, but it is also the way that you remove the top off of you donor car. now get out your grinder and clean up the metal under where the top will be placed back on so that when welding you will get good penetration, and also clean up the metal on the donor top and get ready to start assembling you new top on the car

now place the top one the car line up a pillars and tach into place, it is important only to tach a few, so that if it isn't lined up you can still be able to cut a few tachs and move it. then measure the hight of the rear side to side to make sure that they are equal height and tach. next place the windshield in to check for windshield gap, and palce on the rear hatch to make sure that aligns as well. it is also important to put on the tops and make sure that they fit on the roof, to make sure that it didnt bend on you.

if all fits well start filling in the spot welds

pictures of windshield alighnment

i will put up the rest of the pictures on the finish work on the rear bracing, and the sheet metal work of the cowl , and the rest misc, stuff that i forgot to add this weekend. all that you see there was acomplished in a day and a half last weekend. sat morning i drove out to a guys house to top his parts car ( i do love freebies thanks once again for everything sean) came home cut my top and added the new one, still have some grinding and finish work to do this weekend but should be done by sunday, in which case i will post the rest of the pics. i hope this helps any one that is thinking about topping a car. it isn't hard, but you really need to be handy with a welder. like i said my buddy is a union welder/fabricator so i gave him the honors of putting down much nicer looking welds than i could have done

Wow, that actually didn't look as hard as I would have imagined. You are a lot braver than me though, I don't think I'd have the guts to chop the roof off

man that is awesome, i think i would of converted to a soft top though? regardless, you are definatly getting places! looks good!

Cheers
Douglas

you hardly see me saying this but

sticky

Sorry Dan but I need my top back...lol.... Very very nice. Im definetly voting for a STICKY on this one. I cant believe its already on ,that was quick .Cant wait to see it when its finished.... SHENANIGANS..... you know what Im talkin bout. Later buddy

ya when i was starting this project i thought that it was really going to suck mostly because i was thinking that i would have to section off the a pillars which would be a huge pain in the ***, then i thought why cant you just take it off at the factory mounting points, so that is what i did and it was really easy. i cant believe how those tops are mounted on the car. there really isn't much in the form of bracing especially in the B pillars. there really isn't much protecting our heads.

Okay, now for my next mod, rollcage lol.

Awesome work! It's so refreshing to see somebody actually do it correctly. I've seen too many people cut through the A pillars and wire feed it back together. Again, great work I vote sticky as well.

wel its friday nite and i already finished it but i am wiped out so i will post the rest of the pics tommorow, after i am done installing my s&w 8 point. thanks for the word of encouragement guys, it drives me to finish the post for you guys

Looks great! I think I would have took the easier route and bought a donor car and transplanted all my parts to to it instead

That's what makes for nice cars are people willing to dive in to something like this.

I agree, this should be made a sticky! Very informative, can't wait to see how it turns out.

AWESOME AWESOME JOB!

I love the way you took the time to do it RIGHT, drilled the spot welds out & cut at the seams Plasma cutter? Judging by the cleanless of the cuts and color change along the cut, I'd think so.

Your making me wanna find a t-top car to cut apart now!

Any updates....?????

plasma cutter, i wish i would have way less metal shavings in my eye that i had to get out. nope did it the old fashion way cutter. didn't finish the cowl piece yet have the rest done, started the roll cage, will have pics up later today

as promised more pics of every thing. here are the pics of the outter skins of the b pillars welded up. i had to take out about three quarters of an inch of material around my cut line because it was brazed together from the factory by what appeared to be brass. dissimilar metals dont weld together well, and the welds were cracking, so i cut it all out and added a filler strip

these are the outer skins after the were ground and sanded down. they are fairly straight. dont worry about trying to fill it all in, body filler will take care of the highs and lows

here are some pics of the inner brackets that were taken out, that were put right back in to the factory mounting points

here is another pic of the bracing back in, and one of the inner most plate put back on

and here is the a pillar ground down, still missing the sheet metal work, im sure ill get to it some time in the next month, since the car is in my dads garage and i only have another two months to finish, im trying to knock out all of the big stuff first. my buddy has been out of work because of all the rain so im try to work him as much as i can before the weather clears up. he welds so much faster than i do.

this is what this is all about having the tops to remove and enjoy your car the way you want to. now im not saying that this is for every one, but i hope that it helps the few of you brave enough to tackle this project. it really isn't that hard to do. i also would like to point out that this will also work for you guys that want t-top to hard top, and all around roof replacement. if there is anything that i have left out or something that needs better explaining, let me know and ill try my best to clear it up.

A moderator needs to sticky this as soon as possible, that was an EXCELLENT and thorough description of each and every detail! Just got my hands on an '86 hardtop Z28 too, and it's nice to know that I have this option if I ever decide to go that route. Don't forget to post up pics of the cage when it's installed as well....


-Rob

This will be very useful if I decide to convert my 91 from T-top to hard top.

stupid rust, and to think that my floor pans would have actually existed. stupid me. well it will be a few days for me to fix the holes in the floor before the roll cage is done. sorry guys

sorry its been a while. the floor pans, roll cage are in, the rest of the welding on the top it done and the car is painted. here is a pic of the cars paint, i will take more pics of the cage a body work and have them up this week

Love the colors and paint scheme!!! NICE!! More pic's?

Looking good,,,, cant wait to see more pics .

Wow man, that's great work. That seemed a LOT easier than I really thought it was going to be.

Now the real question - I have a hardtop and want a T-top - anyone want to trade roofs? (I'm serious when I ask this...)

Great work, I can't wait to see more pics.

where are you located, i actually have another t-top roof, i got two i was going to mess around with one roof to see how it was constructed but never got to doing it

pictures of the roll cage and top

here are pics of the b-pillars, and one of my reflection in the paint

here are pics of the shaved gas door, and antenna

a better pic of the antenna, and another pic of the front of the car this time with clear coat on it

This one had a new T top cut in. I had no choice after the engine and drive train were in we discovered a ton of rust in the T area.
Wish I could take the credit but, a friend of mine did it. He charged me for 2-days work.

I'm in New Jersey - I would gladly take the top off your hands, but I'm not sure how I would get it from Chicago to me - do you?

I'd think it would cost a small fortune.

damn Dan, shes coming together nicely. But whats up with the doors . Ill give ya a shout when I can swing by . No more teebaggin.

no need to be a prick now sean, this is the first car that i painted, and seeing how i did all the body and paint work myself, i think i can live with a few tiny dings here and there

anyways you should come check it out, i hoping to have it out for third gen fest 09

Whats a guy gotta do to get a STICKY around here?

The stickiest of the icky !!

Looks great in person!

Great job Dan

yup i've decided that i'm doing this over the winter/spring so in the summer time i can have my t tops and enjoy them too

so i guess my only questions for the moment is where did you get the t top roof?

the first roof i had was from lafn at u, but it was cut a little short could be used but would have been a pain in the ***. the first roof i got would have to cut a section the A pilars, and if not done correctly your roof height and pitch would be off, and could also be a safety factor. the second roof was from a guy that was parting out his car before he junked it. there are a ton of guys on here that part cars, so my suggestion would be to find one with a t-top car close to you and ask him if you could come over and take the top off yourself. otherwise you are stuck to finding a junkyard. take it from me if you are going to go through with it, do it this way, it is so much easier to do than sectioning out pilars. and like i said get a good welder. i know how to weld and did all of the tach welding, but leave your safety to a professional, unless you are really good at it