My T-Top conversion is DONE!! She's Topless!
06-07-2008, 11:19 PM
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My T-Top conversion is DONE!! She's Topless! After having my car for 5 years now (almost to the day) I finally got the stones to convert her to T-Tops. I've been contemplating it and researching the conversion for about 2 years. This project took the better part of a vacation from work to complete. From start to 100% water tight and complete took my friend and I 6 days. It can be done faster, but we didn't want to rush it. We also took an approach I haven't seen in any other conversion. When building the rain channels, I always see people cutting the existing metal and riveting a 90 degree piece of metal back on. Every conversion I've seen online has been done this way and IMO they all look like complete ***. Even if it's fiberglassed over you can still see the rivets. We used the existing sheet metal and bent and formed it to create the rain channel without any other tools but a hammer and dolley.
I ended up with around 275 pics or so of all the progress. These are basically the highlights of the conversion. Either my friend or I will be making a Tutorial for LS1Tech.com (if they'll use it) so we can hopefully help people out that want to do this conversion. And aside from a few minor details it looks damn near 100% OEM. See for yourself.
First off make the car nice and empty. When we started this the only thing inside was the dash and center console.
Use a dremel with reinforced cutoff wheel and cut the fiberglass roof skin across the back.
Then cut the factory adhesive with a sharp knife a little at a time.
And it prys up like so...
The proper way to remove the roof once it's loose.
Voila. Sans roof skin.
Now comes the time to grow a pair and bust out the sawsall.
Point of no return now. :?
Then we do a little cutting and hacking to clean up the excess metal from all 4 corners.
They end up looking like this before we made the rain channels
Since we did a lot of hammering we decided to support the windshield with some 2x4s cut to fit
the A-Pillar metal. We didn't want to run the risk of cracking the glass. And the supports worked,
the windshield was unharmed (thankfully).
And when we were done, this is how the front looked in its raw form.
A bit of the rear metal fab...
Completed left rear corner.
I ended up with around 275 pics or so of all the progress. These are basically the highlights of the conversion. Either my friend or I will be making a Tutorial for LS1Tech.com (if they'll use it) so we can hopefully help people out that want to do this conversion. And aside from a few minor details it looks damn near 100% OEM. See for yourself.
First off make the car nice and empty. When we started this the only thing inside was the dash and center console.
Use a dremel with reinforced cutoff wheel and cut the fiberglass roof skin across the back.
Then cut the factory adhesive with a sharp knife a little at a time.
And it prys up like so...
The proper way to remove the roof once it's loose.
Voila. Sans roof skin.
Now comes the time to grow a pair and bust out the sawsall.
Point of no return now. :?
Then we do a little cutting and hacking to clean up the excess metal from all 4 corners.
They end up looking like this before we made the rain channels
Since we did a lot of hammering we decided to support the windshield with some 2x4s cut to fit
the A-Pillar metal. We didn't want to run the risk of cracking the glass. And the supports worked,
the windshield was unharmed (thankfully).
And when we were done, this is how the front looked in its raw form.
A bit of the rear metal fab...
Completed left rear corner.
Last edited by Lotus289; 02-02-2009 at 05:25 PM.
06-07-2008, 11:20 PM
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I couldn't resist a test fit just to see what my baby would look like soon.
Unnessessary body parts.
Now comes the fun part of the fiberglass!
Aaaaaaaand some Bondo too just to smooth things over.
Sanded up and ready for paint.
We had to mask off the ENTIRE CAR!!! Yeah that was a pain...
Primer time!
And some color...
...and some clear.
Yeah ventilation is your friend when painting. We left the door closed as to not **** off the neighbors. Make sure to wear a good respirator kids!
Unnessessary body parts.
Now comes the fun part of the fiberglass!
Aaaaaaaand some Bondo too just to smooth things over.
Sanded up and ready for paint.
We had to mask off the ENTIRE CAR!!! Yeah that was a pain...
Primer time!
And some color...
...and some clear.
Yeah ventilation is your friend when painting. We left the door closed as to not **** off the neighbors. Make sure to wear a good respirator kids!
06-07-2008, 11:20 PM
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And after a full day of finding leaks, sealing leaks, and putting the windows in every conceivable position to make it water tight, she's finally done!!!!!
06-07-2008, 11:50 PM
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Wow. Simply amazing that you put the time and effort into this. I love to do the work on my car, and have wanted to learn how to paint it myself, thanks to your post, it gives me inspiration to do this. One question i have, is I had a 1978 trans am in high school. The guy i bought it from had ttops installed later on, but he had to put frame extenders to stabilize the frame, or he said it might twist. Have you done any framework, or is the chassis strong enough to eliminate body twist? I had heard ttop cars come with a beefier chassis. Thanks. Good work, you should be proud!!
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06-08-2008, 09:24 AM
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Thanx guys!! I actually forgot about the carpet stain (that happened 4 years ago) until I stripped the interior. I'm going to steam clean it soon and if that don't work it'll get replaced.
And Dave D, I haven't stiffened up the chassis just yet. But I will be getting sub frame connectors sometime this summer (hopefully). I'm honestly not too worried about it since I only have the V6 so I'm not turning out 350 ft/lbs of torque. But I don't wanna take that risk. I just have to come up with the $450 for the connectors.
I forgot, I also made a fun little clip of some of the work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTDnLtTDlM0
And Dave D, I haven't stiffened up the chassis just yet. But I will be getting sub frame connectors sometime this summer (hopefully). I'm honestly not too worried about it since I only have the V6 so I'm not turning out 350 ft/lbs of torque. But I don't wanna take that risk. I just have to come up with the $450 for the connectors.
I forgot, I also made a fun little clip of some of the work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTDnLtTDlM0
Last edited by Lotus289; 06-08-2008 at 09:35 AM.
06-08-2008, 10:38 AM
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GREAT WORK DUDE!! Just a question if you plan on getting a V8 F-Body sooner or later do you plan on keeping this car or selling it? You just did a shitload of work! Again congrats!