New Top for '63 Midget

[tony barnhill]

Well, at least I accomplished something today....my new Robbins top installed:

 

[JPSmit]

pretty

 

[jvandyke]

Looks good. I'd like to see it with the side curtains. Still not convinced I'm doing mine right. Is the shifter "hat" usually car color or black? Also, not to be a pain, but if you could sometime get a close up of your wiper arms at the pivot point, mine are such that the hood hits them and I can only open it a tad.
BTW
GREAT looking car, I hope my red '63 looks as good soon when I hunt down decent chrome strips.

 

[tony barnhill]

Shifter "hat" should be body color.

I'll put the side curtains on it in a few days & post a photo...I want the top to 'sit' for a few days after being out in the sun while I installed it.

Will also get a closeup photo of the wiper arms when my new ones arrive....hood shouldn't get anywhere near them!

 

[mxp01]

Tony:

The top, not to mention the car, looks fantastic - as if they just rolled into the showroom.

I also got the top on my car today. Mine is not a Robbins and I had to have it done professionally, but there is a certain sense of completeness in seeing it done.

Mike Pennell

 

[tony barnhill]

Thanks, mike....now we need photos of yours!!

 

[jlaird]

Shifter hats are car color and are in fact called a shifter plinth.

 

[mccalebr]

Looks great, Tony...looking forward to seeing it in Dillard.

Ray

 

[George Zeck]

Tony -

I've always had trouble putting my top on. Goes on fine on a hot summer day - never easy when cold and rainy and needed immediately.

I did however get a "great deal" on ebay - which might be the source of my problem, but was also thinking of reversing my install order:

Old: put skeleton (arm extension folds towards driver) and then fight like heck getting the channel to slide into the windshield frame.

New: Put the top on without the skeleton frame then add the skelton, carefully, after the fact.

How do you do this? Thnk I'll go try it out.

Tx-

George

PS - skeletyon frame is compressed at specificed 'notch' - when top is on - no spring up due to roof tension. Is my top just too small or is my car growing?

 

[jhorton3]

Tony it looks fantastic! Other than the three tenax fastners on either side how is the rear of the top held onto the car?

 

[jvandyke]

Rear has two rearward facing "fingers" that the bar across the top's bottom edge slides under. I put my top on for the first time a few days ago. I ended up using the spring loaded frame, locked down for slack, worked the front edge into the window frame (didn't know it did this the first time(s) I played with it!) then let the frame spring loaded thingies pop up. Not very good at it and if it had just started to rain hard I'd be soaked before I was done!

 

[tony barnhill]

George...I installed the top with the bows 'extended' & the top warm from the sun....when I erect the top, I 'depress' the top bows....when its erected, I flip the little dingee & let it pop as high as it wants- which is not all the way 'erected'.

But, its tight....

 

[jvandyke]

Will also get a closeup photo of the wiper arms when my new ones arrive....hood shouldn't get anywhere near them!

Here's a pic of mine. Wonder which part is "wrong" here?

 

[Silverghost]

Darn, Jack, but that is one gorgeous interior! Look like "Mom's living room" - you know, the one no one is allowed to actually sit in because it looks so nice! LoL

 

[jlaird]

Shucks it gets used, a bit anyway. I just keep after it.

Surely will need new carpet in a few years.