the subject speaks for itself

 

i believe that earlier third gens had a hook style connector on them, and the newer ones have a pin style connector.

not sure on the years tho, but i know you can get adaptors for either style.

 

cuz i have an 84, and i lost a t-top yesterday while driving. it really f-ing sux. but i've found a few people selling apart thirdgens, and i wanted to know if say, an 88 t-top would work.

 

im pretty sure 82-84 hook style, and 85-92 are pin. Im not sure how u make the pin style work with the hook style cars?

 

I believe they interchange as long as you change the body-side latch parts as well.

 

The c&c t-tops are completely different too

 

just check if you have latch or pin then go and find one that matches

 

My 83 has hook-style T-Tops and they're pretty hard to find in nice shape. I'd like to swap them to the pin style which are much more common.

Has anyone done the swap from hook-to-pin style? I'd like to know exactly what is involved.

 

82 and some 83 cars got the hook style....... other then the locking type, they are identical to the 84-92 style.


i put the later style ones (actually they're in my garage now if anyone wants some cheap) in my 82... you have to remove the locking plates that the hooks went into.... if im recalling correctly, the rear you can leave as is with the plate out... the pin will wedge nicely between the two mounting points of that plate...

the front, you have to make a lil adapter for... i put a piece of metal where the plate was, drilled a hole slightly undersized, and as i tightened the latch into it, it "streched" the shetmetal plate to the exact size of the pin.. nice tight fit.

 

Is it possible to use the stock 84-92 latching hardware on an '83? I'd rather just bolt on later stuff if it mounts the same way instead of rigging it to work.

 

I swapped the 86 pin-style onto my 83 SC which had the latches.
It's quite easy...you remove the trim pieces from the A and B pillars to access two or three mounting screws holding the bracket in place. Remove those screws and the brackets, then re-use the screws to mount the 'new' brackets in their place. Adjust them by trial and error. The holes in the trim pieces for the latches is bigger than needed for the pins, but not overly so.

Pete

 

i had a 86 firebird and 87 transa am, before i scraped my 86 firebird i wanted to keep the t-tops for my 87. but it didn't fit!
so that should answer the question.

 

when you say they didn't fit, what exactly do you mean?

I am not sure of the years, but there are 2 style pin types, large pin and small pin. My friends 91 & 92 birds have large pin tops and my 86 has small pin. I traded a set of glass 86 tops to him for his lexan 92 tops and put my tops on his 91. All we had to do was align the body latch on the car to get the tops to work.
I haven't tried the lxan tops on my car yet, but I have some of the body latches from a 92 parts car another friend parted out just in case I need to change them.

 

i have an 87 and my friends's glas 91 camaros were like really really loose, and like didnt fit at all,i have plexy glass ones,im not too sure why not tho,im sure it coulda been adjusted

 

it's like the size wasn't the same,
the one on the firebird was smaller then the one on the trans am.
tryed on both sides too obviously.

 

The ones on my 84 and 87 'maro were the same... but I think that was already covered

 

One set was GM, and the other set (the smaller ones, I think) were by C&C.

 

Dude, I did the same thing in that car a while back. I had to get another t- top myself.

I learned not to go over 100 mph with the windows down.

You have the pin style, not the hook style, so you should be in good shape to find another one. You can get lucky if you check the local pick-a-part caudse it'll cost you less than 50 bucks.