For the longest time I have always wanted to make a convert. of sorts out of a HT. Specifically a 61-63 Tbird. Yea yea, I know some will look down at me for doing such a thing but SO WHAT. Anyway I would think that cutting the top off would require that the car have some added support put back in it to replace the top support. This tbird is a unibody car. That in mind where would be key places to place support back into the car since the top would be gone. Can I go with out the extra support or so I really need it to keep the car from folding up on me, ha ha ha. Tim
all the support you will need will be supplied by the blades of the giant forklift that loads it into the crusher after you are done screwing it up.
I would definately try a T bird forum, as in the structural differences between converts and hardtops? Then emulate the convert setup as best you can. But, I would imagine as with any restorers, DO NOT tell them your plans!
weld in some bars from the dash to the quarters. that should do it. makes it kind of hard to get in and out, but no worse than a race car.
Subframe connectors from front to rear on each side should do it. I would put additional cross bracing under the package tray behind the rear seat. If I remember right, most of the additional structural support on the 'Bird Convertibles was within the rocker panels. Hope this helps.
That's not a rare car, why not just go find one? Plus they are cheap right now 'cause no one can afford to put gas in those things. There are ******* cars, and then there are cars with the tops cut off. You can tell them apart from a mile away, 'cause they never look 'right'.
The only difference in convertibles and hardtops (for the Thunderbirds) is a little extra support in the inner rockers. These are unibody cars and most of the support is from the trans. tunnel. What you need to do is cut off your outer rockers, cut through the inner rockers and weld some square tubing inside the length of the rockers to make up for the support provided by the roof. Not too difficult to do.
The prices on these cars converts is still up there. If you have not looked of late GAS PRICES have came down a pretty chunk.
do you already have the car in question (or is this some hypothetical question that will never actually come to fruition anyway)? if so, post some pics. Hopefully its a rust bucket. If its a pos, I guess I dont really have a problem with you cutting the roof off.
When I lived in Las Vegas,about '87, my neighbor cut the top off his '61 Bird. Much to my suprise it turned out really well. He didn't add any frame braceing as far as I know. He drove that '61 T-Bird for atleast two years before I moved back to the Seattle aera. .........Jack
You don't want to know how many times I've fielded this question over 20+ years of dealing with vintage T-birds . First off, there is more to an open '61-'66 T-bird's structure than meets the eye. Simply performing a "topendectomy" or what I lovingly call a "whackmaster" conversion is not enough to keep the body from twisting in the wind. While the '58-'60 had some additional support structure in the rockers, the '61-'63 and '64-'66 didn't, at least in terms of formed applied heavy-gauge steel angles/channels. Rocker panels were the same between both cars, including thickness of the metal. Study of underbody diagrams reveal that there is also some additional sheet metal plates used in the area of the front floor/torque boxes, plus an underfloor brace that is welded to the floor pan/tunnel and runs continuous across the body and follows the bottom of the transmission tunnel (hardtops have part of this brace but it stops at the transmisison tunnel). Most people I know who open up hardtops will install steel angle (OK) or tube (better) in the rocker cavity and graft it to the inner rockers and substructure, especially on a car that has been subjected to exposure and rusting sheet metal. What helps keep these cars from sagging too much is the tall driveshaft/transmission tunnel, which forms a stiffening spine/backbone. Additional substructure is placed in the bulkhead behind the rear seats: hardtops do not have the substantial back panel that convertibles do. This panel helps keep body twist/torsion in check on an open car and triangulates the outer quarters to the top of the transmission tunnel, while the roof and package tray holds the quarters in place for a hardtop. The windshield header substructure is virtually the same for both the hardtop and convertible, the difference being that the roof panel is spotwelded to the header for a hardtop. Carefully cutting out the spotwelds will give you a very clean header to work with. If you can find it, you could use the stainless trim from a convertible for a clean, factory look to conceal the substructure. What I tell people wanting to do this to a perfectly good 'Bird is save their pennies and get a real convertible project car that doesn't require all the mod work. I also warn them about the potential liabilities they could face by altering a car like this, especially if a future owner has a cadre of attorneys hound you down when the car collapses from structural failure (trust me, I've heard of this happening!). IF the car is a POS, the structural restoration, especially if the underside is rotted out, will probably result in calling in the forklift to load it into the crusher unless you have unlimited cash, the right tools, knowledge and time. Knowing that this advice flies in the face of many HAMBers, I hope that you understand what you're doing in considering such a structural modification. And hopefully we won't be seeing a future message advertising an unfinished project car without a roof that's only good for parts. I won't go into my rant about parade cars, making a hardtop roof removable, getting caught in the rain and sagging middle sections - that's for another place and time.
I know a lot of guys have heard of guys who cut roofs off cars, and they are supposedly "fine". but I really find this hard to believe. I am currently finishing up a 56 Ford convertible. The car looked nice, but if the owner parked on an irregular surface, you had trouble closing the doors. Stripping the car down, showed a bunch of body supports, and floor damage, previously repaired in spots, but poorly done. Now, if a REAL convertible has trouble with body alignment, twisting, gaps opening and closing, just with some rust damage, how is a unibody car going to fare without roof support???????? Converts have extra heavy duty frames under them as well as extra support in the body structure! Anyway, for some constructive comments. I wanted to shore up the body as much as possible on this car, as it was getting a real nice custom paint job, and I didn't want any flexing to chip up the door edges, or any other alignment issues. Whiel replacing the rockers, I noticed someone had replaced the inner rocker with a 1/8" steel plate, actually a good thing on this car (tho it still didn't help the problem much). I used long pieces of 2 x 2 tubing, 16 ga., to go from the wheelwell all the way up to the front fender mounting/firewall body mount area. I stich welded it to the inner rocker, and also to the floor under the sill plate (plug welded from the top,). I also took some 1 x 1 1/2" tubing and ran it up the door jam, then ran a piece of 1 x 1 from approx. the door latch area (welding it to the 1 x 1/2) back down to where the 2 x 2 met the wheelwell. In effect, triangulating it. I did have some trouble with clearance with the quarter windows, but it wasn't too bad. Also welded a 1 x 1 across the bottom of the rear seat, from side to side, with strong supports, flat sheet, and tubing, going to the floor. This really firmed up the body. I think similar treatment would help a unibody car as well, but I'd also strengthen the trans tunnel, and also perhaps behind the dash area with more tubing.
Do it. I have a '59 'Bird I lopped the top off. I discovered that the coupe body is THE SAME AS THE CONVERT. The w/s frame has the top spot welded to it, the top mounts to the body via two big supports spot welded to the wheel house and inner body. Your '63 may be different, but the earlier ones are the same and need no extra bracing nor support at all. It's the stiffest convertible body I've ever had, no cowl shake, no door binding when jacked up from any point. I made the stock roof removable, and a removable convertible top which is a modified '64 set of bows. The convert top stacks on the deck, then unlatches from the body and stows in the trunk, upside down and backwards. Takes two to lift it off the car. I also hand hammered a steel tonneau cover, and the car has a 5.0/aod from a Mustang GT. I'll post some photos later. If your car is rusty, all bets are off as to the structural integity of the body, but if it's solid and sound, you'll be fine. As for what restorers think, who cares. My car sat by a major highway in front of the guys garage who dis***embled it, stripped the paint off, then lost intrest in the projec, pushed it outside and threw a cheap plastic tarp over it. Every car guy around knew the car, rodder and restorer alike, had seen it and p***ed. BTW if you worry about somebody suing you for work you've done on your car, you're probably on the wrong message board! That's pretty paranoid...
61-63 coupes did have the tops spot welded on, just like 58-60. Yutan gave some excellent information above, and I would only add that because of the way the top works on the t-bird, you'll also have some metal fab to do on the rear package try. On the convertible there's a panel that moves into place attached to the trunk lid. That location, just in front of the rear wheel wells would be an excellent place to put some additional bracing to replace the stiffness of the roof structure. The biggest issue in stiffness is the unibody nature of the t-bird, unlike the frame of typical cars of the day.
I bought a 62 that had the top cut off, i have been told i need to reinforce it, have rebuilt everything, any ideas on how to do so would be much appreciated
My old 66 Fairlane convertible was also a unibody and had large inner rockers that replicated the outside rockers and went all the way from front to rear torque boxes. The torque boxes and inner rockers were heavier gauge. There was a large low profile boxed area under the seats that ran across the car and connected inner torque boxes. There was a similar structure underneath. Both again were heavy gauge. There were small feet on the firewall that braced the firewall to the front frame rails and export type braces (x2) that ran from the centre of the front plenum chamber in front of windshield wipers to each front fender bolt near the radiator apron. I had almost no flex even with no roof and a 390FE. There was a large sealed canister under the rear behind the bumper that attached to each side the rear frame rails near the rear shackle. It contained a fluid that absorbed road feedback? No idea what was in them but recall that they were HEAVY. If you go down that road, I anticipate a lot of work!
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