Hardtop

[ruthlesstyper]

Anyone seen a hardtop on an s13 convertible? I was wondering if a company actually makes them. I dont think anyone does, so how much you guys think it would cost for a shop to fab one up? Thanks

[AZhitman]

No such thing to my knowledge.

There's a company that makes a hardtop for the old Datsun roadsters, and if it's anywhere near that price, it's too expensive.

You could buy a matching coupe for what the hardtop development and manufacture would cost.

[toptechracing]

Yeah but a Carbon top would be kinda cool...........

[AZhitman]

Agreed!

[Eikon]

Sorry to hijack this thread...

AZ... can you email me. [email protected]

I am looking to start a web-site/business marketing aftermarket Nissan parts. I have emailed the NICO general site looking for rules/regulations for sponsorship and partnerships, but it's been a week with no reply.

Can you send me info on advertising/sponsorship etc...? Or at least get me hooked up with whoever I need to talk to?

Thanks

[AZhitman]

Got your email, will reply.

Been busy as heck. Sorry.

[nkonuma]

I, too, had a vision of having a Carbon Hardtop.. I've found a company that does Custom Carbon work.. but the hard part is the design for the hardtop.. Since one doesn't exist we'd have to make one from scratch.. And if that ever happens.. the next thing would be the cost to fabricate it in CF.. here's the company I had in mind.. http://www.customcarbonfiber.com/ They charge $100/hr PLUS $10 sq.ft.

[toptechracing]

I actually have a guy that could pull a mold. I was thinking of pulling it off my extra coupe so the body line would look correct.

[Eikon]

That would be the way to do it. Find a junked Coupe and cut the top off. Then you would just have to fabricate the base around the conv. boot area, and then latches and connections in 4 corners.

Great project. That would be awesome. What if you could put some hinges in it somehow and make it collapsable so you could bring it with you.

[Hijacker]

collapsable hard tops are the suck, though. And given the trunk space of a vert, it probably wouldn't fit

where would the latches go? I guess you could go the route of the miata and mount the rear latches to the trunk lid, but I've never liked that idea.

[toptechracing]

nah, It would need to be at least glass. I would make a slip under bracket and latch it to the factory pull latches to seal the front lip.

Joe

I am gonna ask my glass guy how much for the mold.

[creatingmars]

I personally think it would be too big for 1 person to take of. I think the miatas and z3's have one becuase it's practical enough for 1 person to remove and it's easy to store. I wouldn't be able to find a good spot to keep it if you were to remove it.

[AZhitman]

Bleh.

For the price of a hardtop, you could just buy a coupe and have 2 240's.

[toptechracing]

Bleh.

For the price of a hardtop, you could just buy a coupe and have 2 240's.

haha, I already have 3 not sure I want another. I think having the HT would be more a matter of having one. I would like to tow my vert behind my Motorhome and I think the HT would take less beating and make the car a little more secure.

[Swedish Mike]

Sorry for bringing this up again but I used the Search button!

Did any of you check the price on a carbon hardtop? A full carbon one would be lightweight and easy to remove. Same as the BMW E36 and E46 ones.

/Mike

[krash]

i was thinking about buying a peice of crap coupe for cheap and then cutting off the roof. from there i would have to fab up latching and waterproofing. maybe get the bar from the vert top that latches on the windshield and mod it to fit the coupe top. then, ill have to find a way to make the back secure. but its doable, i took some measurements and it would fit in place of the vert top, you just have to have the top down and then put the coupe hardtop in its place. im not worrying about weight cuz im only using it for the winter, but ill probably get a mold made anyway. thoughts on this? not doable?

[top_secret]

I was thinking about hinging my speedster cover in the back and making a fiberglass hard top that was capable of nesting below the speedster top. I'd keep the top down 90% of the time but Id like to have some kinda top for when it gets real cold or if I"m on the interstate and it starts raining or something... Having said that, its probably not going to be hard to make some copies of the speedster cover, but as far as making copies of the top that I could ship out to other members I'm going to say probability would be close to 0. For one thing I'm going to be reusing the stock header bar and I can only get my hands on a few of them (as well as the RX7 rear window I'm planning on fitting). For another I'm not sure it would fit with the stock top, which means it wouldn't work for most of you anyway. but I'll have to wait till I finish the speedster cover to see if its even possible that it would fit there.

[Swedish Mike]

Yeah, it´s doable, most Vert´s got one or a few hardtop brands to choose from.This hardtop can´t be harder to make than to a Beemer or MB.

But as always, this is a rare car.

/Mike