T-Top conversion?

Loco5.0 · Mar 4, 2008

I toyed w/the idea of a targa top conversion, but too much $ & work.

So I'm wondering if anyone has done a t-top conversion on their fox. My car has a sunroof. I'm assuming that isn't a big deal vs a hardtop, but what do I know?!

My car has SFCs & a cage already.

cenok is family · Mar 4, 2008

i've heard of people trying it by just cutting and installing in some t-tops in their pre-existing roofs only to result in bad leaks. if you want to do it, find a t-top car and cut and do an entire roof transplant. it would be the easiest way, the best way to avoid leaks, and you would have everything you need. you'd probably get flamed on here for hacking up a t top car though. i guess try to find one that's wrecked?

i always thought a targa top would be really badass. i don't think it'd be too bad, just gotta start with a t top roof, cut out the center section, run the proper edging and weatherstripping across the top and using the t-tops as sort-of stencils, have a glass company make you a targa top glass piece and use the edging and lock stuff from the t tops. that or make one out of metal.

ttop88 · Mar 4, 2008

The only way to do it right is to buy the roof off of a t-top car and swap them. It will cost a couple grand to have it done. I would sell you a ttop 88 for a couple hundred more!

85_SS_302_Coupe · Mar 4, 2008

Yeah to do it right you'd need a good T top car to donate the roof. Maybe if you found one wrecked in a junkyard. It's basically just cut the top of each car off and swap them. Anybody who can chop the top of a hotrod can do it and it's really not that involved. I know some guys who've had their hoods fly up and smash their roof and have done the same thing to fix it.

blckstng96 · Mar 4, 2008

you deff do need to find a roof from a t-top car but its actually way easier than most think and you deff DONT need to transplant the entire roof,way too involved and overthinking the entire idea.you do however cut the roof completely off an existing ttop car a few inches down on the a pillars and sail panels.then all you do is drill the rivets out holding the ttop frame in and then use the old roofskin as your blueprint basically and take your measurements from there and do the cutting on the new car and then just rivet the frame into the new car.i plan on doing this to a notch.if you really look at one under the headliner,its way simpler than it seems.the car pretty much has to become a targa top before the ttop fram e is installed.

Prime Lord · Mar 4, 2008

I can tell you this...the T-Top frame is a rivet-in structure that goes inside the standard roof. If you can find a wrecked T-Top car...drill out all the rivets and then take the structure home....slap it up in your roof and then mark the areas to be cut you might make it work okay.

cenok is family · Mar 4, 2008

blckstng96 said:
you deff do need to find a roof from a t-top car but its actually way easier than most think and you deff DONT need to transplant the entire roof,way too involved and overthinking the entire idea.you do however cut the roof completely off an existing ttop car a few inches down on the a pillars and sail panels.then all you do is drill the rivets out holding the ttop frame in and then use the old roofskin as your blueprint basically and take your measurements from there and do the cutting on the new car and then just rivet the frame into the new car.i plan on doing this to a notch.if you really look at one under the headliner,its way simpler than it seems.the car pretty much has to become a targa top before the ttop fram e is installed.

interesting, i didn't know it was a riveted unit! that does make it much easier!

Loco5.0 · Mar 4, 2008

Thanks for the info. Keep it coming. I'm curious to see if anyonw has done this & EXACTLY how it was done. I would be having my body shop do the work. I'm not taking this on myself.

85_SS_302_Coupe · Mar 4, 2008

blckstng96 said:
you deff do need to find a roof from a t-top car but its actually way easier than most think and you deff DONT need to transplant the entire roof,way too involved and overthinking the entire idea.you do however cut the roof completely off an existing ttop car a few inches down on the a pillars and sail panels.then all you do is drill the rivets out holding the ttop frame in and then use the old roofskin as your blueprint basically and take your measurements from there and do the cutting on the new car and then just rivet the frame into the new car.i plan on doing this to a notch.if you really look at one under the headliner,its way simpler than it seems.the car pretty much has to become a targa top before the ttop fram e is installed.

I see what you're saying but my background with working on hotrods (while not very extensive, i was around them a lot when i was younger) leads me to think that just cutting the A pillars and sail panel area off each car at the same spot and welding them back together is the easiest way to get it done. In the end you have less welds to deal with. In the end your roof is factory perfect above the welds so you know there shouldn't be any more leaks than it originally had.

85_SS_302_Coupe · Mar 4, 2008

Loco5.0 said:
Thanks for the info. Keep it coming. I'm curious to see if anyonw has done this & EXACTLY how it was done. I would be having my body shop do the work. I'm not taking this on myself.

I can't recall anyone doing a T top swap but i know it's been done. Even if i had pics of the guys who've swapped roofs to fix theirs after a hood fly up, it wouldn't do you any good because the end result looks factory....know what i mean?

Loco5.0 · Mar 4, 2008

85_SS_302_Coupe said:
I can't recall anyone doing a T top swap but i know it's been done. Even if i had pics of the guys who've swapped roofs to fix theirs after a hood fly up, it wouldn't do you any good because the end result looks factory....know what i mean?

I was talking about in progress pics as well as exactly what they have to do to get the job done right.

blckstng96 · Mar 4, 2008

cutting and rewelding a new roof on is the worst way to go about it,you have all the welding to do and body work and paint ans im sure your again making it a bit weaker in those areas.doing it the way i stated you avoid all that.honestly you could get away with doing it my suggested way and im sure you wouldnt even need to do any paint work let alone body work or welding.like i said,its just a piece welded in.once i find a good notch candidate im doing this to it.i'll be sure to have progress pics.gotta sell my 88lx first though haha.

Demented4.6 · Mar 4, 2008

If it were me i would find a t-top car and do as stated above and just remove the T-top section (drill out rivets). The reason i say this is because all t-top cars were made from regular ol solid roof cars and then cut up just as we would be doing. Trust me once i started tearing my coupe apart i found some fine hacked up stuff around the t-tops.

Seen this a few years ago

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talladam · Mar 4, 2008

Gotta change doors too. Or butcher the top of the door and swap glass.

LiquidGT · Mar 4, 2008

There is (or was?) a good T-top car in the JY around here, no real body damage from what I saw, I wish I had money so I could rescue it.

Prime Lord · Mar 5, 2008

talladam said:
Gotta change doors too. Or butcher the top of the door and swap glass.

Yeah, that completely slipped my mind. The easiest thing here is just to get some vert doors and swap those over as well.

hsean · Mar 5, 2008

i will be doing the t-top conversion myself but i will be doing it the way cars and concepts did this.i will be pop riveting it in and i already have vert doors that are rust free which i will use and will swap everything overto. the doors on my t-top have rust on them.

blckstng96 · Mar 5, 2008

so pretty much you will be doing it the same way ford did,factory it was just pop riveted in,thats what im trying to say.hacking the doors is just plain bad idea and cutting and rewelding is doing more work and making a bigger mess then needed.then like stated,just swap doors,verts most likely easier to come by in decent shape

Demented4.6 · Mar 5, 2008

blckstng96 said:
hacking the doors is just plain bad idea

That is how the original T-top cars were done. They just hacked the frames off and added some rubber pieces and that little piece of trim at the mirror to cap it off. Later years like mid 85 up they added some bracing on the door which was riveted to it to give it extra rigidity.

Just remember that t-top glass is REQUIRED on a t-top car and is getting hard to find

talladam · Mar 5, 2008

Good catch demented, I forgot to mention that last night.

T-Top conversion?

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