marawder

Hey everyone. I recently had a 1985 Firebird passed down to me. I also have the windows from my dad's 83 Firebird. From my reading, it seems that the 85 went from latches to pins? Does that mean I won't be able to use my 83 windows? Any help is greatly appreciated.

marawder

anyone?

el_muerte

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking... are you wondering about the T-top latching system? If so, you can use the older style latch strikers (slightly modified with a rat-tail file) to attach the newer style T-tops with pins, but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to go the other way - older T-tops with newer latch strikers - if that's what you're asking about.

marawder

Thanks........so I I noticed on the 4th Gen Firebirds there are actually line indents so u know where to cut on the roof......where can I get the proper measurements for my 85? Am I correct in assuming that if I take my headliner off I will see the precut factory T-Bar cut outs?

Scorpner

iTrader: (4)

It sounds like you're trying to convert a hard top to a T-Top? I've heard of people cutting out and swapping the entire top. It might be more difficult to cut it out and finish it in such a way that they won't leak especially if you haven't done any fabrication work before.

The mounts for the Tops are interchangeable. You could simply get a hold of some latch type mounts but they're not as common. Don't know if a hard top is going to have a place to attach them either.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

My '87 TA has the same pins that my '83 had... The t-tops are a little different but they're interchangeable.

marawder

Ok, I am a little confused.....it was my understand that if you cut the top roof pan off......thats the factory Tbar cuts are underneath?

slowmaro87

wow you really need to describe what you are wanting to do are you putting older tops in a newer car or are you converting your hard top to a t-top car ...there are alot more parts involved to that than just the tops ...and if you youll find that many people have converted hard tops to t-tops and the best way is to have a doner car to cut the entire roof off of and replace yours with it ...a t-top cars roof is two inches shorter than a hard tops roof

marawder

wow, thats good to know. Yes, I want to convert a hard top to T-Tops. I watched a conversion done on You-Tube with a 4th Gen. It looked so easy......but I guess its different with a 3rd Gen.

built91Z28

Its not the same as a 4th gen. Here is the best thread I found about how to do it properly. Its not for the light hearted.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...-top-roof.html

marawder

thanx for the info everyone.............

slowmaro87

let us know what you decide and you should do a build thread if you swap roofs!

marawder

Does anyone know what I will see if i pull the headliner off? Is it just flat roof or??????????? Think of either a big sunroof or even a moon roof???????????

AmorgetRS

iTrader: (6)

It's not a flat roof, there is a bar running down the center.

marawder

Is the bar there for the factory t-bar cut outs? Also, if I added a sunroof will the bar be a major issue? Will it compromise body stability?

duckmanquacker

the bottom half of the bar looks similar but they are not the same. you would need to cut both your A and B pillars to swap roofs. that is the only way to do that task correctly. I have seen some that had a sunroof but they cut out the center bar and the flex causes many leaks. If you cut that bar out you need to replace it with a couple of bars on either side of the sun roof. Just remember that GM didnt spend millions of $ just to put some unnecessary piece on the car, The engineers put that bar there for a purpose.

AmorgetRS

iTrader: (6)

Adding the sunroof was somewhat common back in the day and I never heard of them ripping in two. Would I do it? No.

el_muerte

That explains why I keep hitting my head in my buddy's T-top car and why I had to lower my seat mounting points... thought I was imagining it lol

AmorgetRS

iTrader: (6)

You are imaging things... the hard top and t-top cars have the exact same overall height.

slowmaro87

the exact dimensions have been posted here on this site multiple times

AmorgetRS

iTrader: (6)

We must be talking about something different, but if the roof height is different then how do the side windows, rear hatch, interior plastics, etc interchange.

Are you taking seat height to ceiling?