Hardtop Project

[Bigtaku]

Alvin, do you have a picture of the headliner where it butts up to the door windows, and one of the front where the latches are? I am about to dive into installing my headliner. The rubber will hide the lower parts where the hardtop touches the body. Most cars have headliner boards that you attach the liner to but are hardtops don't. I thought of using a plastic edge like on some types of weatherstrip and gluing it over the felt for a clean looking edge. Also I would like to order the felt with the foam backing already on but I'm not sure if the foam will be able to be removed with a clean straight line for the fold over in the front or where ever I will need to fold over the fabric.

[Alvin]

Hard to believe this hardtop project started 13 years ago! A recent inquiry reminded me to update this thread. There are still photos missing I will track down.





Before restoration



after:

[Alvin]

Alvin, do you have a picture of the headliner where it butts up to the door windows, and one of the front where the latches are? I am about to dive into installing my headliner. The rubber will hide the lower parts where the hardtop touches the body. Most cars have headliner boards that you attach the liner to but are hardtops don't. I thought of using a plastic edge like on some types of weatherstrip and gluing it over the felt for a clean looking edge. Also I would like to order the felt with the foam backing already on but I'm not sure if the foam will be able to be removed with a clean straight line for the fold over in the front or where ever I will need to fold over the fabric.

I don't think high and low windshield tops are the same, especially near the header. Here is my '67.5:

[dbrick]

That looks really well done. I have to talk to Woody, see if he ever got the carbon fiber mold ready to make more.

[Bigtaku]

Alvin, you are right the late model tops are very different. I ended up painting mine because of the fact that it doesn't have rubber or the steel to tuck the headliner fabric into except the rear wrap around. I came out pretty good anyway.

[spl310]

Being that they are aftermarket pieces, if you want to dress it up with a headliner, you could find some aluminum trim (think something from a boat maybe) and use that to finish the headliner.

[Alvin]

Pics from jhayden's high windshield:

[Bigtaku]

That looks like a factory top and mine is a Custom Hardtop brand from California but I have a friend that is a car upholster and he has a ton of ideas

[Alvin]

That looks like a factory top and mine is a Custom Hardtop brand from California but I have a friend that is a car upholster and he has a ton of ideas

It is a Smoothline/Parish hardtop, not OEM. Let us know what you come up with for your high windshield top!

[RussellC]

Alvin,
Any way you could give some detail on how your friend's smoothline top was adapted to connect to the stock mounting receivers?
I have a uninstalled smoothline that has a J-hook setup rather than that nice stock way to connect to the front windscreen.
Was that custom work by a body guy or something a DIYer can do like myself?
Thanks!
Russell

[Alvin]

Alvin,
Any way you could give some detail on how your friend's smoothline top was adapted to connect to the stock mounting receivers?
I have a uninstalled smoothline that has a J-hook setup rather than that nice stock way to connect to the front windscreen.
Was that custom work by a body guy or something a DIYer can do like myself?
Thanks!
Russell

Russel, contact "jhayden" on the forum it is his roadster. also, there is huge thread on experiences/solutions with the Smoothline top mounting:
http://www.311s.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.ph ... 92#p242092

[sfdaugherty]

I think jhayden has an original Parish top. I have a Smoothline top copied from the original. The Parish tops are pretty nice. The Smoothline are not the best quality.

Shannon

[RussellC]

Thanks for the info!

[Alvin]

Thanks for the info!

Thanks Shannon!

[onsight512]

Since there's been so much talk about different hardtops in this thread, I'm going to ask this here.

Does anyone know if a Smoothline hardtop, for a high windshield car, only has two attachment points to the windshield? I have one local to me that's for sale. It fits on the car, but there are only two "j-bolts" on either side of the top. I know the car normally has one in the middle also.