Building a Removable Top

Well I finally took the crappy soft top off of my Plymouth and decided to start building a filler piece to fill in the giant gap where the original cut on the body is and where the convertable top was. I'm gonna build it out of 3/4" MDF with some 2x2's and 2x4's with a built in storage area and a speaker box for a 10" Kicker Solo Baric subwoofer. I'm thinking about possibly making the top, exposed piece, out of really nice cedar and staining it with boat teak. (If I go that route I will also plan on doing some custom woodwork to the inside as well.) But I may end up shaving some foam and wrapping it in vinyl instead. After I complete that I'm going to start build a removalbe hardtop. It will start out with a wood frame and get possibly get fiberglassed or maybe I'll just wrap that in vinyl too. Not sure on that yet. All I know right now is that I need more wood. :)

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Top Off


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The Start of the frame

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Trunk area before:

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Top Off:

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Anybody else done something like this? Any tips?

Just my experience but i wouldn't use MDF, It likes to suck up moisture and can ripple and bow. a good marine ply would work really well.

Ditto on the wood choice. More expensive, but less headache over the long haul than if you use MDF.

David

Do you have a picture of the car with the top on it? I would be interested to see where you started.

I look forward to you progress on the removable hardtop. I have been kicking a similar idea around for my roadster so I could drive it in the AZ summer. Yes, I have heat/AC in it...the purists hate that.

Here's about 160 hrs labor, $2500 in material, + the cost to cover.
Made of foam and incapsulated in fiberglass.
The biggest trick is to get the "loft" right or it'll look like ya threw a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood on it.

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Originally Posted by 37 Caddy

Do you have a picture of the car with the top on it? I would be interested to see where you started.

I look forward to you progress on the removable hardtop. I have been kicking a similar idea around for my roadster so I could drive it in the AZ summer. Yes, I have heat/AC in it...the purists hate that.

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Well this is all I have right now. And I'm positive that I don't have any picturew with the top actually up as I never put it up. And that's one of the main reasons why I'm doing away with it. (Other than the fact that it was HEAVY, at least 150lbs, and UGLY!)

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You can see from this pic just how far it sat up on top of the car though. I hope I have a side angle shot but I'm not making any promises.

I also agree to what you guys said about MDF and I was only gonna use MDF for a very small portion. The subwoofer box.

Alright I got some work donw this weekend and it's looking good. I have built the majority of the base for the top which happens to house a 10" Subwoofer and a fluch pull out drawer for storage. I have to finish the drawer but it will be going in the large cut out next to the subwoofer.


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Now it's time for some vinyl and to start on all the wiring for the stereo. After that is all done then I will start on the removable top.