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How difficult is it to lower or raise your top?

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Legal Bill

Jedi Knight
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On my BJ8, it it quite an exercise to lower and raise the top. The top does not easily fit into the well behind the rear seat. The rear bows are a very snug fit going past the area where the rear of the top is connected to the channel. I really have to work at it to getit low enough to stay down and then it is a struggle to get the boot on to cover it.

I'm wondering if my top frame is centered at bit to far to the rear. Is it possible to loosen the nuts and adjust it forward a 1/16th of an inch?
 
Hey Bill.

Just raising and lowering the top is not a challenge.
However, shrinkage and cold weather can make it a bit difficult to store, . Be sure you crease the rear window with your hand at about its midpoint when you go to put it away.
Latching it at the front may require a bit more of muscle too--Keoke--- :laugh:
 
Bill,

My top has been installed since 1971 (replaced the original with a Sears top) and still looks very good. However, when it’s down its down and when it’s up its up. Raising and lowering my BJ8 top is a royal pain. When compared to a contemporary Alpha, the BJ8’s weather resistance and operating convenience are more than a decade behind.

Not only do you have to hand fit the top into a rather tight space, you have to be very careful you don’t cut the top sides with the built in scissor frame when pushing it down to clear the cover. It usually takes me around 5 to 10 minutes of going from side to side before the retraction is completed.

To me the laugh is that they placed a handle at the head of the top as though you could grab it an, with one hand, lower it or pull it up and lock it in. If there is any BJ8 that you can do that in I would like to know how THAT top is fitted.

The positive is that, although it produces a right side blind spot, I do like the look of the top when it’s up.

All the best,
Ray (64BJ8P1)
 
RAC68 said:
To me the laugh is that they placed a handle at the head of the top as though you could grab it an, with one hand, lower it or pull it up and lock it in. If there is any BJ8 that you can do that in I would like to know how THAT top is fitted.
Click to expand...

Never thought mine was anything special, but the handle works great for me... very easy to get up and down. I can reach back and grab the handle from the driver's seat to pull the top up with no problem. It moves freely and easily. When opening, once it's past the halfway point, the top falls under its own weight down into the body, requiring only a slight push down at the corners on my part when I'm trying to fit the boot in place.

I really don't know how old my top is... it's in good shape, but looks like it's been on the car for quite some time... but I can attest to the fact that the top can be worked by the handle - at least in my case.

~Bob
 
Ray, your top works EXACTLY like mine does.

Bob, your top works the way I remember them back in the 70s.

Could it be the new tops are made of thicker material? Could it be that the frames require careful alignment?
 
The frames won't tolerate a vinyl top that has shrunk. It puts too much stress on the mechanism which can bend slightly causing the hard fitting. On the same thought, be careful installing a new top that you don't overstretch it in to place. It should swing up into place by pulling the center handle only.
 
To me the laugh is that they placed a handle at the head of the top as though you could grab it an, with one hand, lower it or pull it up and lock it in. If there is any BJ8 that you can do that in I would like to know how THAT top is fitted.

Well Ray. the handle seems to work OK but these original tops that have not shrunk or gotten stiff I do not know what to say--Keoke-- :laugh:
 
Mine went up and down in couple of minutes. The side "rain gutter" seemed to get hung up and needed tucking in. I un-zip the window first and ROLLED it into the well. I got a new canvas top last fall and it is a pain in the butt. It was cut improperly so there was no flap to pull out and roll over the top. It stuck between the top bows and would not push all the way into the well. It was up enough that the cover would not go on well and the flap would not let me snap the cover. They are replacing it the end of May with a new one cut from the original and not out of "stock". When I was at the BJ action last year I saw that a Kurt Tanner restoration had the same problem with part of the top extending into the cockpit and not folding all the way down.
 
Mine is brand new and not shrunk. I have to pull each corner forward to get the clasps to lock. I can;t help but think this is more abut the frame being mounted in the right location, since the bows have trouble clearing the channel area of the the well when I put it down. If those bows fell cleanly into the well, that would greatly reduce the overall effort.
 
Legal Bill said:
Mine is brand new and not shrunk. I have to pull each corner forward to get the clasps to lock. I can;t help but think this is more abut the frame being mounted in the right location, since the bows have trouble clearing the channel area of the the well when I put it down. If those bows fell cleanly into the well, that would greatly reduce the overall effort.
Click to expand...

Hi Bill,
The frame has very little adjustment movement front to back, side to side. The mounting plate has 3 holes and they are not much bigger than the bolts that go through them. Maybe 1/8" clearance. If your mounting plate was positioned as far back as it would go, then that's why your having both problems of the back bow pressing against the material when you try to push it down and maybe why the top doesn't reach the clasps. The clasp hook length is adjustable, but that may not solve the final pull to lock it in place.

I'd suggest loosening the two top nuts and the nut on the bottom of the front elevator bolt on each of the mounting plates. Get some help and try and give it a good pull forward to see if you can move it. It may not let you, being the top material is clipped to the rear trim rail and there may not be enough stretch of top material to let you moving it forward.

You may have to remove the screws holding the trim rail to the water channel, so as to remove that rail. If you find you can then move the frame forward a little, then remove the clips that hold the top material to the trim rail, give the material the need length, then re-clip the material back on the trim rail.

That may solve the shortness at the windscreen, being the frame has now moved forward a little.

Another option is to move the windscreen back a little. That may involve moving the side windows back too. Which may affect the clearance around the top and side wood. The top may slacken up a bit too and not be as drum tight. Cause and effect.

Does this shine a light on your situation?
Cheers,
Roger
 
Thanks Roger. I was looking at it late last night and thinking that even if I could move ther frame forward a 1/16th of an inch, there may not be enough slack in the top material. Maybe I'll grease the top so it slides into the well easier (just kidding).
 
You guys are making feel good about my decision to sorta permanently attach my hardtop. I can pop it off to run as a roadster if the spirit moves me, but most of the time it is a snug little coupe. Okay, the a/c doesn't hurt.

Cheers,
Steve
https://stevesaustinhealey.com
 
I didn't know Agatha had a top. Put it up once, grunted, groaned and was downright torqued. Never put it up again - rain or not.

I do put it upright once in a while just to clean it.
 
Well, this is one of the items I was complaining about in my Grrr thread. I decided to loosen the nuts and bolt secuing the top frame to the chassis and discovered that only one nut on the driver's side was tight and the bolt had no nut attached at all. I loosened up the one tight nut and the frame could move forward a wee bit. I tightened the nuts on the pin studs and then got a nut and washers for the bolt and tightened that too. Then I found that one of the four wood pieces was loose and missing a screw that attaches it to the frame. Then two of the little rubber end caps fell off the windlacing. I'll be chasing this stuff around for a while I think.
 
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