Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Ford’s Other Ways to Get Your Rays… Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Yea,, one would be a bunch of fun,, but really in So Cal now that the rain is over the top would never be up
In 1957 our neighbor bought a black flop-top ford. All of us kids in the neighborhood would beg him to raise and lower the top just so we could see it go! Fast forward to about '99 or 2000 and I went to take in Bonneville speedweek. I always stayed at the Bonneville Motel where the proprietor had a few flop-top fords sitting out front. He and I got to BS'ing and when he found I was a mechanic he wanted me to stay in Wendover and fix his broken ford tops. I 'splained to him I was on vacation and wanted no part in diagnosing and repairing any mechanism that took 13 different relays and solenoids to control the motors...he offered free room and board as long as I would stay but I had to decline.....best decision I ever made.
My take-away from this one 'bomber? Coupes rule. Seems like we're on the same page there, and for me that goes over many eras. My 39 std Tudor is a fave, always dug those too and I get a full size back seat for the dogs n friends as a bonus. Still, a coupe will remain in the gunsight til I'm done. Flip tops never really bumped my rev limiter. I had some p***ing interest when I 1st heard/read about em but that fat 1/4 panel is obvious. Automotive version of Nikki Manaj, too much back there and way outta proportion. It also stopped Ford from offering a square 'bird version, although the mechanisms and engineering remained for convertibles through 66 on a couple of their product lines and could be just as problematic. Everything old is new again too. Volvo and Chrysler offered modern versions, and Mercedes too I think. There's not many cars that don't look right as a coupe, even the Model T with it's "phone booth" body is kool, yes? Although "form follows fuction" made the Fords look like they did, how *****in is it that such mechanical genius made production? And in the 50s too. Like it or not, worth remembering.
I always see these at shows with the top half up/down, sure would like to see one with it all the way up or down. Maybe Rocky hit the nail on the head when he said " I wanted no part in diagnosing and repairing any mechanism that took 13 different relays and solenoids to control the motors."
Had this '63 Lincoln for a short time, and that sliding ragtop thing was a Golde product, same company that put the crank sunroofs into the '60 Thunderbirds. Not quite 10 years later, Buick offered a very similar top in their Skylarks. I've never seen another one so it's hard to say if it was factory installed but it certainly looked like it, special headliner and all. Probably should have kept it. I've also got a complete roof off of a '54 Ford gl***top that I would like to put into another car someday.
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