I'm about to convert my Camaro RS to a t-top roof with the help of my buddys, who's an ex-body shop owner and a race car mechanic.
We've bought a '86 Camaro with a T-Top roof, and we'll cut that roof off as well as the one on my Camaro, then weld the t-top roof onto my Camaro.
I'll have pictures of the swap in the coming weeks.

 

Awesome! You unfortunately won't be the first to post pics and steps along the way of converting to t-tops, but any help to those who want to do the conversion is great!

 

Been there done that, check out my black widow ^^

 

same here

 

Gah I want T-tops so bad... but the problem is people tell me my car is rare with the color combination 5 speed with a hardtop. Idk what would balance more: Bad-a**-mull3t-rockin-t-tops or originality?

 

The handling won't be as good and you'll have more squeeks and rattles but it'll sure be nice in the summer!

 

keep it original, you want a t-top car? they're easy and cheap enough to find, just buy another car! what could be better than two third gen f-bodies?
other than more

 

Heh, that's probably easy for you to say considerin your probably over the age of 18 and have a full time job! I'm still in school workin part time tryin' to replace my boring 305 with a 350 and havn't even got the block work done yet!

 

actually not, i'm a senior in high school working to pep up my little 305, my car is all ready t-tops and i think it would actually be nice to have a hard top car. if you look hard enough you can find some pretty sweet deals on a pretty decent hardtop car with a 350, i once found a guy trying to sell his 86 camaro witha built 350 for $500. he was goin through a divorce and desperately needed cash.

 

I have a hard top car and a T-top parts car, and had considered swapping the roofs. I have always heard the T-top cars had more bracing or heavier guage metal in some areas, but I havent ever heard any concrete info on exactly what parts are different and if they can be pulled from the parts car. I figured the car is going to get subframe connectors either way. I have always had convertables and really miss open air driving.

 

Torn apart both types of cars and don't see much more than the front to back and side to side cross bracing in the roof, same sheet metal, and i've seen the homemade jobs done, they take thier hardtops, cut the ovals out, put the underframing in, and curve thier original sheet metal appropriately. Not bad but you rarely see such a good body worker that they don't have some sort of leak, rattle, or something to fix 100 miles or so later. Good luck with the swap, the process isn't the easiest, measuring appropriately for the hatch and windshield, but can be done. Enjoy the new roof!

 

transfer anything you want to a TTop car, then sell the hardtop car, these cars are very easy to find cheap.

 

noo. don't kill the hardtop! i'd kill for a hardtop for a good price


just buy a silly ttop. God knows that there are enough out there. i got 2 in my driveway and i just turned 16 and work 2 days a week. lol.....

 

A hardtop Trans Am and a corvette convertible LOL

 

A young man who knows his cars! Good on you!
When I bought my '89 Formula in 1988, I had to do a factory order to get a car optioned the way I wanted it and *not* get T-Tops. Dealers seemed to tack the T-Tops on all the cars that had all the other nice options. I had to wait four months for the car. BTW, I still have it. Body is tight, no leaks and no squeeks or rattles, too!

In 1988, I drove both t-top and hard-top Trans-Ams and Z28s over the course of a few months on some very long test drives. The difference in handling is amazing when the car isn't all cut up like that. You can actually feel the difference just going over a speed-bump one wheel at a time, and this is when the cars were brand new!

If you find a well optioned F-Bod without T-Tops, chances are it was a factory order...

 

Unfortunately the T-top car has some pretty significant frame damage with with a bad repair on top of that. I thought about swapping the stuff over at first. These were both give away v6 cars so I would not exactly be hacking up some pristine car. The hard top has been hit hard in the front, but both cars were free. I was able to get a good radiator core support out of the car (T-top) with frame damage (someone had attempted to weld in a new one badly). Under the removable body work the only damage to the hardtop was the radiator core suport wich I have already pulled and now just need to weld in the new one I pulled from the other car, and the front horns for the bumper which I am hoping to straighten out enough to bolt the bumper on close enough (at least with spacers). Most people probably would not ry to save either of these cars, but It is being stored at my friends shop while I do the work, my kids have been helping me and been fun time to spend with them (I plan on teaching them to weld when we do the radiator core support), the hardtop car has very few miles, and they were free (the only real reason anyone would mess with them at all) I think it is great to teach my kids not to just throw something away because it needs a little work, but we are talking about an 88 v6 camaro that I am not sure why it doesn't have a salvage title. I worked in automotive restoration for a decade while working on getting my engineering degree, so I have seen more than my fair share of hack jobs, which I am sure is the motivation behind the ever present "just sell what you have and buy the one you want" messages that come out any time someone wants to modify something, but really I was more interested in finding out what differences there really were between these cars to decide if there were any parts I might want to cut out of the T-top car before it is scrapped in case I want to build a T-top car or convertable out of this one (that I saved from being scrapped). Thanks for the help. I have always heard they only built convertables out of the T-top cars and would assume that meant there was more differences than just in the roof of the car. I know a lot of factory convertables out of unibody cars have extra material along the unibody seam along each side of the car. I will try to look at both cars closer, but was pretty sure there were people on this site that had more experience with these cars that might be able to save some time on that. This might be a better question for the Convertable message board.

 

I know there was more framing put in on the custom convertables that were made outside of GM, but that was added before/after chopping the t-tops off the car. As far as t-top to hard top comparison, to my understanding they are both just about the same underneath.

 

If this is true, why did they use the T-top cars exclusivly for convertables? I still have not gotten a chance to get back out there to try to see if there is anything different?

 

I'm so **** about structure that I'd never cut up hard top car. T-Top cars are so flimzy. If you cut the roof off that car your going to be very sorry.
Spend your money somewhere else. There's no reason to cut up a good hard top car. I'll bet if that project get's started it'll never get finished or be right as a end result. There will be problems.
Put it into the engine or trans/rear end.
~Scott