Hey guys and gals. I have a 91 fbird with t-tops. The car came with 2 sets of tops one plastic one glass. Unfortunately the PO put one of each on the car. When I looked at the other 2 (again-one plastic one glass) the plastic one was trashed, mechanisms rusted, lock broken, and trim was missing so I have written that one off as a loss. The Glass one is in good shape except part of the trim is broken (see pics). My question is can I switch the trim, mechanics, etc from the existing plastic one that is on the car to the glass one so that I'll have a matching set? If so how do I accomplish this? Any help you can give would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

All the trim and mechinisms and such should swap over.

 

AS far as weight goes, the plastic ones are lighter. But as far as looks go, the glass look much better for much longer (they don't 'crackle' like the plastic ones).

Swapping parts should all work fine. The only issues will be with the weatherstripping - IIRC some of that is kinda glued to the top itself, and so will require some patience and creativity to remove in tact.

You'll notice that the plastic tops have a metal pin with a plastic cover, where as the glass tops have only the metal pin (no plastic). This is fine - the metal pin is really the only part that goes into the receiver - on the plastic tops the plastic pin covering gets pushed back as the metal pin is inserted into the receiver. I've had glass tops in my 1992 car now for several years, and they've been great.

Also note, you may need to adjust a tad for the different top to seal well to the car - under the tops of the A pillars and B pillars there are little bolts to loosen and thus you can change the postion of the receiver end to adjust the tops to a degree.

 

Thanks for the help. I'll try and peel off or un-glue them and swap everything. What kind of adhesive should I use to glue them back together?

 

Weather strip adhesive, cant go wrong with that.

 

For the weather stripping that swaps over that is.

 

Camaronewbie, I think I have to make some of these adjustments on my car. How do you get to the bolts? Do you have to remove the headliner?

 

also check craigslist. i have found a pair of ttops in my area for 50 they were glass and no problems and if there painted you can also repaint then or paint over them just an idea though