Has anyone here cut a hardtop crown vic roof and installed a factory plexigl*** front half ? My 55 is no show car and always wanted the gl*** top ! Had to repost , as I screwed up the fiest one !
Is your '55 a Crown? Bear in mind the '55 Crown vic and all '56 hardtop/Crown cars had a totally different roof with a much 'flatter' profile compared to the rest of the '55/56 Ford cars. I suspect you'd have to transplant the entire roof including the matching front/rear gl*** if you don't already have a Crown which would be can of worms. If you just gotta have a gl*** top and don't have a '55 Crown, look at the '54 Ford Skyliner/Mercury Sun Valley. These also had the gl*** top, but the roof profile will be much closer to the non-Crown cars.
Apparently the plexigl*** insert is the same for 54 and 55 cars, so the roof profile must be the same for both. It can be done, new inserts were available at one time but I'm not sure if they still are, same for the rubber gasket. The stainless moldings for the outside and the interior garnishes are not reproduced, but you could run the rubber gasket without the stainless on it I guess, it would still work. The big job would be to add the stamped flange all the way around the roof hole for the plexi insert to sit in, the edges kind of look like the opening for a windshield, you can't just cut in a big hole. It would be a fair bit of work to get that right, where the plexi insert sits flush with the rest of the roof. But it certainly could be done. I've seen a few Skyliner roofs swapped into other cars, it's definitely been done, I have a '54 roof to go in my own '53 someday (not for sale), but most others I've seen had a donor car to get the surrounding sheetmetal. If you've got the pieces to use, it should be pretty straight forward. If you have to re-form the sheetmetal, it's going to be a much bigger job, but still do-able I would think.
Sounds like a fair bit of work. Unlike modern 'sun roofs' you will have no inside slide cover to keep the car from over heating on sunny days.
Probably the fastest and CHEAPEST way to satisfy your hunger, would be to sell what you have and buy what you want.
I saw it done once, on a Canadian version, and they used some sections from a rear window pinchweld, that had been pie-cut, to do it. Those sections came from a '56 hardtop, but I imagine there would be other Ford cars that would be suitable to use parts from. I personally would have a well thought out plan before starting, be prepared to pay well if you hire it out.
I used to have a 55 gl***top and it was missing the sun shade. Unobtainable when I was looking for one. That car was like driving in a sauna in the summertime.
It did work well, time-consuming as I'm sure you well know, but it looked and fit quite well in the end. I was told it took about 40 hours, and the idea actually came from a Crown Vic owners group or forum.
40 hours ain't bad, one solid week once you have the pieces to do it, I've spent a week working on **** that I didn't even end up using, I'd say that's pretty good.
Somewhere, boxed up in the ba*****t, is one of my AMT '56 versions that I built with a front and a rear plexi panel. I always wanted to try that on a real one, but I'll bet it would be quite the oven in the sunshine
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