Convertible frame adjustment

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Three Ponies

Active member
Joined
Sep 5, 2016
Messages
29
Reaction score
3
Location
West Grove, PA
My Car
1973 Convertible Restomod (5.0 HO motor, 24LB injectors, 75MM throttle body, E cam, Tremec TKO 5 speed, 4WDB and other fun stuff)
2000 GT Convertible (Roush conversion)
2004 Thoroughbred (the kind that poops)
1962 Thunderbird
1954 Mercury Monterey Sun Valley
I can't seem to get this "sag" out of my top frame over the driver side front. I've tried adjusting the frame "east/west" by loosening the mounts at the rear quarter and have good alignment on both windshield posts. I've messed with the hook and pin on the driver pillar to no avail. I loosened the two nuts on top of this portion of the frame and then discovered in order for the frame to move fore and aft, you have to remove the large phillips head screw on the side, but... that hole is countersunk for the screw, so that does not appear to help. I've even removed the screw, loosened the bolts and moved the front section forward (photo below) but it doesn't seem to help much.   The top operates very smoothly, however, I can't seem to figure out this last adjustment. Does anyone else's top have this? Suggestions? I want to get this right before the fabric goes on (obviously). 

Any ideas? 

Frame_dip_2.jpg


 
Thanks! I thought I scoured the forums last night and obviously missed this thread. I know our tops are different than the early models and don’t have the same adjustment points on them. I overlooked the Allen screw adjustment and will try to find that tonight. It always helps to ask!

By the way, I’ve seen your convertible in person and the photos don’t do it justice. Great piece of history!

 
Wellll........ no allen bolt. I scoured the back frame to body brackets and yes, there are only 3 bolts that give you east/west adjustment and nothing for fore/aft. Then I remembered (thank you, beer) I bought a shop manual 4 years ago. Unfortunately, it has no diagrams and is almost useless. in order to get the clearance from the "top edge material and the door window line" you have to "loosen the number 2 bow to side rail bracket attachment and raise each side of the bow and then re tighten the nut to retain the adjustment".

Huh?

So the plan will be to loosen every nut and bolt on the driver side, prop up the frame and snug it all back down.

The kicker on the manual is this is all done with the fabric in place. so, it appears the fabric is part of the design to hold the frame in place.. Raise the bow, raise the side rail in theory. Famous last words....

 
I ventured over to stangnet.com to see if anyone there had an answer. I got the same - look for an allen bolt where the #2 bow meets the frame. I have none - they are all rivets. Even though this frame has what appears to have a Ford part number stamped on the fat arm, I'm becoming suspect of what is going on. A better photo of the #2 bow and bracket is below.

Could someone please take a photo of your bracket so I can compare?

Thanks in advance!



 
I ventured over to stangnet.com to see if anyone there had an answer. I got the same - look for an allen bolt where the #2 bow meets the frame. I have none - they are all rivets. Even though this frame has what appears to have a Ford part number stamped on the fat arm, I'm becoming suspect of what is going on. A better photo of the #2 bow and bracket is below.

Could someone please take a photo of your bracket so I can compare?

Thanks in advance!

I lost track of this thread after my post. I looked thru my existing pics and have nothing to help you compare to your pic so will take a few picts today and post them. In the meantime here are a few that might help.

BTW: I appreciate the compliment. Just curious, where was it that you saw my car? I have two 73 verts, you are always welcome to stop by and look at the roof in person, if it would help.

Rich





Looks like an allen head bolt.



Near the first bow





free image hosting api

 
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I ventured over to stangnet.com to see if anyone there had an answer. I got the same - look for an allen bolt where the #2 bow meets the frame. I have none - they are all rivets. Even though this frame has what appears to have a Ford part number stamped on the fat arm, I'm becoming suspect of what is going on. A better photo of the #2 bow and bracket is below.

Could someone please take a photo of your bracket so I can compare?

Thanks in advance!

I see you have a 1954 Mercury Sun Valley. I have a perfect showroom brochure for that car. It is quite big. I just saw it the other day when going though boxes of literature. I have hundreds of ads, pictures and manuals that I will be selling. PM if you are interested.

Dennis Carpenter still had some NOS tops for them a few years ago.

David

 
Well, its hard to find adjustment points without the material removed and I did not have any sag to deal with. I did find what appears to be a hex adjustment screw stuck between the side rails at the hinge point. You can only see it when the roof is down. From what I can tell it serves no purpose other than to create separation between the two rails when the roof is fully up. You can see in the pic where it makes contact with the opposite side when the roof is up. Looks to me that when the screw is fully in it would separate the two side rails which may affect the hinge's resting position thereby creating more arch in the roof line. Check to see if you have the same screw and try adjusting it. Here is a pict of it.



 
Well, its hard to find adjustment points without the material removed and I did not have any sag to deal with. I did find what appears to be a hex adjustment screw stuck between the side rails at the hinge point. You can only see it when the roof is down. From what I can tell it serves no purpose other than to create separation between the two rails when the roof is fully up. You can see in the pic where it makes contact with the opposite side when the roof is up. Looks to me that when the screw is fully in it would separate the two side rails which may affect the hinge's resting position thereby creating more arch in the roof line. Check to see if you have the same screw and try adjusting it. Here is a pict of it.

Excellent, thanks for the pictures. Tomorrow is Daytona Day, so I will be camped in the garage and am going to work through all of the photos. I'm starting to get a sinking feeling this is an aftermarket frame (were there any?!?!). Bottom line is... I have to do something. I have the material and the installer is ready to go.

As far as where I saw your car, I'm a little fuzzy. Beers and Gears? Sheridan Ford? Bellanca Air Field?

I see you are in Delaware (I've worked there for 25 years). I might take you up on the offer to view the top so I can ascertain what is different on this frame. Not sure what part of the state you live in, but I bounce between Dover and New Castle. This would be greatly appreciated.

 
Well, its hard to find adjustment points without the material removed and I did not have any sag to deal with. I did find what appears to be a hex adjustment screw stuck between the side rails at the hinge point. You can only see it when the roof is down. From what I can tell it serves no purpose other than to create separation between the two rails when the roof is fully up. You can see in the pic where it makes contact with the opposite side when the roof is up. Looks to me that when the screw is fully in it would separate the two side rails which may affect the hinge's resting position thereby creating more arch in the roof line. Check to see if you have the same screw and try adjusting it. Here is a pict of it.

Excellent, thanks for the pictures. Tomorrow is Daytona Day, so I will be camped in the garage and am going to work through all of the photos. I'm starting to get a sinking feeling this is an aftermarket frame (were there any?!?!). Bottom line is... I have to do something. I have the material and the installer is ready to go.

As far as where I saw your car, I'm a little fuzzy. Beers and Gears? Sheridan Ford? Bellanca Air Field?

I see you are in Delaware (I've worked there for 25 years). I might take you up on the offer to view the top so I can ascertain what is different on this frame. Not sure what part of the state you live in, but I bounce between Dover and New Castle. This would be greatly appreciated.
I am not aware of any repro roof frames for our card, but it's possible.

I live right off the first exit after the toll south of the rt 1 canal bridge. I'll pm you my cell phone number. Just give me a call if you decide to stop by.

 
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The saga continues on the sagging frame. First, a thank you to Rackerm for giving me the opportunity to photo and measure one of his 73 tops. The bad news is his does not have the bow 2 to side frame adjustment bolt either. The brackets look exactly like mine, right down to the rivets. Makes me wonder if Ford did a mid-year production change and had to swap out parts due to shortages. I just got new weathersttripping from Dennis Carpenter and their instructions (verbatim to factory manual) reference this mystery bolt as well. 

Rackerm made an excellent suggestion that when the fabric is installed, it should go on taut, which may pull the sag up. I'm on board with this. Let's see what happens. 

I did try something else and it seems like it may help. I took a piece of flat steel, bent the top 3 inches to the angle of the fat arm, welded in a piece to the side to keep it from flexing and put a hood adjustment bumper on the end. This limits the amount of downward travel of the fat arm which limits the amount of downward travel on the front arm. Picture is attached.  Y'all can poke fun at it, but if it works, so what!  

If a



nyone can find the mystery bolt, please snap a picture.

 
Hey Gene,

I think I found the convertible roof side rail sag or overcrown adjustment screw. With the roof up, look over the rear qtr window, behind the coat hook near the side spring and cable rear mounting spot. It's a flange bolt and not an Allen screw. It looks like the screw effectively does the same thing your stop modification does.  See the pictures below...

Also, how tight are your side cables?

I just noticed that I am missing a bolt.....









 
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After a lot of researching and photographing a number of cars (Thanks again, rackerm!), the cloth top is on and working. I could never locate any of the screws or adjustment bolts (except for the one midway up the c pillar which was max'ed out), but the stop that I welded up with the hood bumper shown in previous photos worked with a little bit of adjustment. 

Between the top issues, a fried computer and a mismatched MAF (flea market vendor mislabeled it), I was ready to burn it down! But, it is running great and I only have a few more things to do.

 
I see your car is black. Was it originally black? In 72 & 73 Ford removed the color Black from the option list. I had to be a Special Order to get it so a six digit DSO code should be on your door sticker like below. I have a 73 that was originally black and one other member has also. They came with Argent front bumpers.

D



 
The car had been repainted silver several times before I bought it. I did save the door sticker. It was originally silver. I should note I bought this car on a rotisserie and a car trailer full of parts. I had  3 fenders, four quarters, two floors and a bunch of other duplicate parts. It was originally a 302 2v auto sold in Washington DC sales district. I didn't consider doing a Marti report because I knew I was building a restomod out of it and the car wasn't anything special. I had an 89 GT drivetrain so I sold off everything I didn't need (still have some misc items)

It now has a 5.0 with an Explorer intake (better than a Cobra!), 24# injectors, 70MM throttle body, E-cam, cold air intake, yadda yadda....  The  TKO 5 speed didn't fit -  had to do a new trans tunnel and the shorty headers hit the steering box. I did use the pedal box from the GT as it is cable operated. Seats are recovered GT items as well. It has 4 wheel discs also. Here are a few pix. I posted exterior shots to the 73 gallery. 





 
The car had been repainted silver several times before I bought it. I did save the door sticker. It was originally silver. I should note I bought this car on a rotisserie and a car trailer full of parts. I had  3 fenders, four quarters, two floors and a bunch of other duplicate parts. It was originally a 302 2v auto sold in Washington DC sales district. I didn't consider doing a Marti report because I knew I was building a restomod out of it and the car wasn't anything special. I had an 89 GT drivetrain so I sold off everything I didn't need (still have some misc items)

It now has a 5.0 with an Explorer intake (better than a Cobra!), 24# injectors, 70MM throttle body, E-cam, cold air intake, yadda yadda....  The  TKO 5 speed didn't fit -  had to do a new trans tunnel and the shorty headers hit the steering box. I did use the pedal box from the GT as it is cable operated. Seats are recovered GT items as well. It has 4 wheel discs also. Here are a few pix. I posted exterior shots to the 73 gallery. 



Sounds like you made good use of lots of parts. I see the shock tower braces are missing. That is a big strength factor on these bodies. I would put back on or make a custom one to take some flex out.

 
Unfortunately, they don't fit around the upper intake manifold. I'm going to have to fabricate new ones out of a few bars and rod ends. I can get to the firewall mount locations, but not with the fat stock ones. I actually have given thought to notching the original ones and welding a gusset to the underside. By the time I do that, I think i'll go the bar route and also try to bend up a Monte Carlo bar. Or, maybe I'll just go to a bar and think about it....

 
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