Hot Rods Top options for a 32' roadster?

Chad, that looks wicked! You need to post more pics of that heap!

 

We made the cover pattern out of a bed sheet and duct tape just to kind of give me a idea of what I wanted and than I could move it around in photoshop.

 

I run a Bop Top on mine. They're expensive, but you could build your own for a lot less. Theyre simply built. Try to borrow a friend's top and duplicate it.....Mike

 

Thanks Tman! Tonight is "******* Tuesday" at the garage. Witch means...every Tuesday we work on the top. Not what you guys were thinking. Cody just rolled in with cloth and a few s***ches in it to test fit.

 

I have a 1948 Bob Lee top for my 3" chopped deuce roadster
but it isn't together yet.
Anyone familiar with it or have info to share.
PM me please!

 

I've run a BopTop on mine for over 40K and it works very well, especially in bad weather with the flip down lexan side windows that I made for it (call me a weinie but if my wife is happy, I'm happy). The quality, especially the top material is the best and doesn't show any wear yet. I've run in some high winds on two lane highways and when I meet a conventional Peterbilt semi, I swear it's going to get ****ed off but it always stays on. I did modify the front post set screws to use the original Deuce set screws to be sure. It does take about 15 minutes to break down but if you get some practice it isn't so bad. Nothing looks better than the lines of a BopTop but I am going to attempt to duplicate the same look by building a folding top on my Brookville project. I have a stock set of irons but I'm not crazy about how they work either.

Chad (fergenboysinc), yours is looking great and I think you're on to it with the look and the ability to fold it down.

June 2005 in Bedrock (way out in western Colorado in the boonies)
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From Outside of Oatman, AZ on old Route 66</td></tr></table>

 

So.... Now that I have a cover that I cant see behind me. Whats everyone doing for the rear window?

 

I used the top from Speedway, called the Kwik top, it is supposed to fold but it looked like **** in it's original configuration so I re chopped it and made it a fixed top.

What I like it it has irons instead of conduit or tubing whatever the bop tops are made of and when you look inside it looks like it would fold down, basicly like using original top irons and chopping them, most of those tops in the day didn't fold anymore once they were chopped and had the "Look"

I am real happy and have less than half of an after market top and it doesn't look like hundreds of others.

 

- Rudy, Any thoughts of installing period looking rear window frame?
-Also, many of the late 40's-early 50's did have folding top irons when chopped unless they were converted to Carson tops on later cars. My Dad's '32 roadster of 1947-1951 ran folding irons with a chop........Mike

 

Hey Mike, I just wanted to different again. My girl friend makes boat tops so the back window material was avalible and way cheaper than one of those fancy rear windows in the frame.

This was the first top we did and I'm real happy with it. Now if I can the Merc caps on the car I got from you it will be perfect.!

 

It looks good........especially if she sewed it up. Nice job.

 

Thats a cool top! I probably should just "buy" the speedway window but...I have more time than money! So...here is the rear window-thingy that I have been messing with. Any advise would be helpfull.

 

whoops, forgot the outside. The inside kinda looks like a jail cell window. It just needs some bars. NOT that I would know.

 

Hate to be rude, but that looks awfully like a copy of the Kwiktop. I just fitted one to a car.

 

Except he didn't have one to copy and it was made from scratch in his own garage. I know because I've seen it.

 

Well, as long as we're talking tops.....

Who offers the best windshield stancion bases & posts? I'm hunting 3" chopped posts.

JH

 

I searched for those pics but that thread is gone. I may have them on a disk for the old PC.

 

I got the bop top and it was high but the quality was excellent. I also chopped my windshield post an additional 1 1/4 to create a more even window opening.

Roger Ward built his own top on the tan roadster below and used conduit and then skinned the top with sheet aluminum and put a headliner inside.

RP

 

-I wanted to go from a 2" chop to a 3",so I got my 3" w/s frame and stanchions from Barry Lobeck. I filled the mirror hole in the left stanchion w/stainless and re-polished. Very nice quality.
-I've known Barry for 30 years and his parts are excellent quality........Mike

 

Not rude, If thats the one that speedway has a picture of in there catalog than you are right. I used that basic design. I thought about buying something like that but I would have had to chop it up anyway as I chopped my windshield about 4". I wounder if they used a lower pulley off of a small block chevy to bend there bows too.

 

I used the Don Montgomery book "Hot Rods in the Forties" for the look , Hank Negleys car , page 26 is what I liked best for my '32 . Top is an original , chopped 1 3/8" , posts laid back 17 degrees . Rear window rake by cut irons and bows .............Z.D

 

I just bought the stock length ones and chopped them to the height I wanted. Get the stainless ones and they are very easy to polish back up after you get them chopped to where you want them.

 

Cool Z Diddy,I always loved that picture.Im gonna build a similar top this winter.

 

I dig the way that back window sits. I also like that wood in the back bows.

 

i bent electrical conduit laid a sheet over it kept cutting and adding until i had the shape i wanted. took my pattern to a boat canvas shop and had the bow's bent out of stainless and had a top stiched up the whole thing goes right in the trunk.i have a boot that utilizes the same snaps that the top uses the top comes off the bows and the bows stay on the car under the boot. not that expensive.

 

I understand! The Kwiktop is made here in Australia by the same people that make the steel '34 roadster ute and phaeton, sold in the US through CWMoss and I guess Speedway.

Nice job by the way.

 

I have built my own version of a bob top. I´ve made a tube front insted of the wood piece. Two different colors to change styles and one with a "drilled" look. Split rear windows is also different.
Pär / Sweden

 

Here's something a lot of guys forget when they're doing a top.
It needs to hang out over the side windows otherwise water comes in when the car is parked in the rain or when you wash it.




The top on mine has Wescott oak bows and top irons - chopped 2" - which I believe are made by Lebaron-Bonney.
Nice thing about them is you can set the top angle and height by moving the oak bows up and down till you get what you want.
Here's a side view.


Note that the 32 top has a bit of forward lean to it which adds a lot to the looks.
My pal's 29 A roadster had a top and the rear of the top is vertical.
Not as cl***y as the forward leaning 32 top imo.
The 34 tops have even more of a forward lean at the back and duplicating that on a 32 - or A - is especially good looking.

The top on my 32 will fold over the roll bar.
Said roll bar being taller than most and not just for decoration.

The tops cloth is a kit from Lebaron-Bonney and is what many upholstery shops use in lieu of making the complete top.
It's an easy project to do at home.

The 32 top fits the 30-31 A's and will probably fit the 28-29's since all ****pit measurements are virtually the same.
All you need to do is shorten the single bar 2" that runs from windshield header to top hinge point.
Right above the steering wheel in this pic.


Look close and you can see the top ovehanging the windshield by 2".
Your measurement may be different depending on how much your windshield leans back.
Fwiw, the 31 is running 32 windshield posts.
A bolt-on with just a touch of grinding required for windshield leanback.

A pic of the 32 top on the 31 to show the good fit around the ****pit.


It looks like the top irons would be easy to duplicate with 1/4" x 1" aluminum.
Buying commercially made oak bows would be the way to go imo and you'd end up with a mostly home-made top iron setup that looks trad.

One thing you definitely want is a snap-open rear window.
It makes a tremendous difference in how cool the ****pit is on a hot summer day; 100 degrees F + fairly often here in the dez.



As for the window, Lebaron-Bonney makes a nice one, but cutting your own window frame out of 1/4" and maybe 3/16" would be easy to do.
Knocking out an aluminum ring on a lathe is easy, you can cut it into 90 degree pieces for the corners and use straight bar.
Some Tigging and grinding smooth would do the trick.
Make an inner and outer.

Do yourself a big favor and don't use real gl*** for the back window.
It's heavy and will stretch the material after a few years.
Use Polycarbonate (Lexan is a trade name for Polycarb).
I have a pair of Polycarb windwings that are about 11-12 years old and they're clear as gl***.


One last thing, you can make some adjustments to the top shape after it's installed.
Been thinking of doing that with mine.
After about 12 years of use the top is getting a bit of slack in it and it's easy to remove the 'hide-em' strip, pull the tacks or staples from the rear bow, tauten up and put er back together.
I'll probably drop the middle bow and maybe the back 1" or so.

One reason I did the top the way I did was to create a wedge shape so if the top ever came loose it wouldn't fly up.
Paid off when the shallow coned Ford type header/windshield bolt came loose.
I ended up turning a pin onto the end of a couple of stainless allen heads, drilled the windshield post top to fit and that took care of that problem.


Shown here, the turned aluminum ****on that fits inside the windshield post.
The top of the post is sharp and the rounded surface doesn't tear car covers, tarps, skin and similar.
Also allows a good fit for the top pin bolt.

 

Good info . Thanks !

 

Can't bring up pix!!