Like the old Clint Eastwood western, every big project has some of the good, the bad and the ugly. Some things that just don’t work out (at least mine do) and this project is no exception.

As in the movie. I'll deal with the ugly first. Just a total screw up on my part. Basically, neither top (hard or soft) will fit! When I made the roll bars, I thought I measured the hard top correctly and even attached the soft top bows to make sure they cleared when folded, but apparently I screwed up all that.

The hard top is a full no go. No way to make it fit without it looking cut up or goofy. My body man says we can make it work, but I’m not sure that the results would look right. At any rate, it would be a big job to cut and paste this one enough to work. It would have to have a couple of molded bubbles, like the Gurney roof on the GT40, to clear the hoops. The rear window frame would have to be completely cut out and leaned back about 2” for clearance, too.

The soft top could be made to work, but will need a new fabric section made. Pretty much a completely custom top. No way to get this done before going back to the coast. The wife and I will have to treat it like a motorcycle trip and rough it. We’ve traveled by motorcycle before, so we are somewhat used to that. Drove a T-bucket with no top for about 10 years and made several long trips. This car, in theory at least, is much more comfortable than the T. At least I’m completely behind the windshield on this one, not so much for the T. That sure made driving in the rain (and hailstorms, another story) “interesting” to say the least.

As they say, when given lemons, make lemonade. If I have to have new top fabric made, then I will also attempt to make a new folding top mechanism that works more like a real folding top. The original Sebring top is more closely related to a boat or simple Jeep top, with very simple top bows and windshield attachments. This setup has to be pretty much “erected” like a tent. I would really like to have a setup that simply folds up and down like a Miata or later model British sports car. Quick and simple to put up or down. This will be my next big project, probably for the next several months as there is much engineering and fab work to do. Most likely a few aborted attempts will be made. The hard part will be finding someone that can sew a top and then paying for it! Probably won’t be anything close to cheap, but the car is nice enough now to justify the outlay.