Technical anyone made top irons

I'm looking for dimensions for making my own set of top irons for my 1930 Model A ford. the car started out as a sport coupe and has since been converted into a roadster. so I need to do a lot of cutting etc. Has anyone made their own?

thanks

 

Get in touch with Clayton Paddison "MrModelT"...he built a top for his T roadster out of aluminum tubing; http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4128505&postcount=232

 

i'm looking for actual dimensions such as locations of the pivot points, length of arms etc.

 

Wish I could help with specific measurements...why not just bend up some tubing and mock it up? IIRC, the Sport Coupe is a few inches longer through the p***enger compartment than the roadster, so I'm not sure what good dimensions for a roadster top will do for you.

Best of luck with the project!

 

This is a "T", but the basic idea of the layout should be the same. As gwhite said above, it really isn't going to matter what stock is when you are working with a scalped Sport Coupe. Just use this guide and make what looks right...

 

My buddy Andy made up a set for his roadster. I took some measurements from a 31 deluxe and sent them to him. He tweaked my measurements to function and built his. My home computer that had the file on it crashed, I'll check tonight to see if I still have the original sketch on paper.

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There is a source of original dimensions, if I can find it...
You will have to do some re-engineering on a coupe based car with longer ****pit than an original roadster.
Tex Smith published his working dimensions on all the Ford roadsters in HRM, which kindly published them reduced to microscopic size since no one was interested in that time period.
I think the pics may have been in March '73 or March '74 HRM...no guarantees.

 

i did a tech a couple years back for ck deluxe on a set of chopped irons from scratch... i had 30 dollars in the whole thing and they were built better than the speedway ones... you should see it .

dont hate

 

So, where is it ?

 

any luck in finding the dimensions?

 

Yeah, I have em, my home computer crashed, so waiting for it to be repaired so I can rescan and post.

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I bought a kit made by the older guy that makes the Speedway kit. Car is a duece spt cpe with a chopped windshield. The longer length & the chop combines to make this a real sanity test! I wanted a folding top that stays on the car, but the pivot points make it either too high folded height or touches your back. Might have to concede & make a folding top that is removable. Gonna have to go back to finish this, as I got hung up doing a T5 with S-10 rear conversion with a buggy spring!

 

Here's what I've got. I took measurements with a tape measure from inside an ***embled complete car, so they may not be 100% accurate, and Andy did say he had to tweak the measurements a little.

 

I made a set for a '32 roadster , which I suspect would be similar. Looking at the drawing above suggests they are.

I have some pictures somewhere I can dig them out and post them if you like . These will give you both side view and front view.

 

Here are some of the pictures i took and the drawing made.
One note of caution . I made an error which is illustrated in the last picture . Where the irons attach to the windscreen I attached the section from the rear to the round section that sits on top of the windscreen post. The section from the rear should attach to the outer edge . This resulted in the irons being pinched together slightly at the front. The sides need to be parallel. This is corrected in the drawing. I trust this makes sense.

 

Thank you very well detailed I will give it a try.

 

another approach would be to modify a set of M G B top irons. did this for my 32 roadster. had to alter length and width, but was able to use the side irons without changing the geometry of the folding mechanism

 

Thanks to all who have posted real info on here, pictures and drawings etc.

Keep them coming if you have any more.

 

A few more pics showing various views of the irons .

 

Still waiting

 

I didn't make top irons but top bows for my A roadster. I used thin wall conduit from Lowes and boat hardware from ebay. Just laid out a shape I liked, welded the conduit pieces together. My buddy that's a good wood worker made a header out of oak for me.

 

I'm finished making my top irons and have 1 more question. how flat should they lay when folded down. when I fold mine down the stick up about 11 inches. anyone have any pictures of their roadster tops when folded down.

thanks

 

yikes...

any pics?

the US auto makers trend towards 32 to 34 was to have tops that laid flat or was callen "hidden"

 

No pictures yet, I'm not sure I could get these to lay flat so to speak with the dimensions I used from this thread

 

is the cloth on yet, or just the framework is that high?

 

no cloth yet just the frame work

 

Crummy pic of my homemade irons on a 32 Nash conv sedan. It takes some trial and error to get irons to work right and to fold in a neat pile.

 

I've been working w/ the dimension's in this thread [using 1/4" ply instead of steel ] & have found the short [4 3/4" ] link to be too long to allow the irons to lay flat... if you bolted your ***y. together , try unhooking 1 end of the short link & see where that takes you.... there's something about not pinching the top material by having the irons fold too flat .. but I haven't got that far yet... maybe someone who's done the whole deal will chime in.
dave

 

Need to add this to my last post .. The short link goes from 4 3/4 to 4 1/8 .. the piece it hooks to [front hoop link] the measurement that is 4 3/4 goes to 3 1/4 then the ***y should fold down to 6" high approx. hope this helps..
dave

 

Without some pictures its a bit hard to say. However a couple of things to bear in mind.
My drawings and pics are for a '32 , I suspect there are probably some dimensional differences between the Deuce and your '30. That alone would suggest to me some tweaking of the plans/dimensions is in order. Also note the error I mentioned that I made. Essentially if the irons pinch together at the front at the point of attachment to the windscreen then they will bind as you fold them back and that will cause them to sit up and not folding together as they should.

When I made mine I found that even though the measurements were from a genuine set fixed in place on an original '32 roadster I still had to make adjustments to make it all come together. In the end I was pleased with the outcome acheived with the overall shape and appearance.