Lazarus
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2019
- Messages
- 312
- Reaction score
- 222
- Location
- NC
- My Car
- 1973 Mustang Convertible 302
1972 Mustang Convertible 351-2V/TKO600
Hi y’all. I have been contemplating trying to make a removable hardtop for one of my convertibles (72 and 73) for some time. I think I would probably use an early 70s challenger or cuda roof skin as the base. I suspect one of those may fit well and avoid issues trying to make buttresses from a same year Mustang coupe work with the vert quarter.
I have a friend with a 71 cuda and my first step will be to take a crapton of measurements to see if it’s even possible. If it’s close, my next step would be to try to buy a repro mopar roof skin and a broken 71-73 Mustang convertible frame, so as to integrate the windshield attachment and the window frames. Fyi, the door and quarter window fit seems to be the most complicated/scariest part to me (the different quarter window is another reason I decided against using a coupe roof).
I figure if I can get the vert frame pieces from the quarter window forward integrated into the mopar roof skin, I would then move on into filling in the rear bottom of the c-pillar and some sort of rear glass with a bottom frame edge/seal. Ideally, the rear part would fit over the boot trim (or some modification of boot trim) such that the soft top (down obviously) would still be able to be in place.
It’s a crazy idea maybe but was curious if anyone had ever considered such a thing. Let me know if I am out of my mind.
Below are some images I pulled off the interwebs of the mopar skins for reference. I think it would fit very well style-wise.
I have a friend with a 71 cuda and my first step will be to take a crapton of measurements to see if it’s even possible. If it’s close, my next step would be to try to buy a repro mopar roof skin and a broken 71-73 Mustang convertible frame, so as to integrate the windshield attachment and the window frames. Fyi, the door and quarter window fit seems to be the most complicated/scariest part to me (the different quarter window is another reason I decided against using a coupe roof).
I figure if I can get the vert frame pieces from the quarter window forward integrated into the mopar roof skin, I would then move on into filling in the rear bottom of the c-pillar and some sort of rear glass with a bottom frame edge/seal. Ideally, the rear part would fit over the boot trim (or some modification of boot trim) such that the soft top (down obviously) would still be able to be in place.
It’s a crazy idea maybe but was curious if anyone had ever considered such a thing. Let me know if I am out of my mind.
Below are some images I pulled off the interwebs of the mopar skins for reference. I think it would fit very well style-wise.