I have a freshly restored 65 and need some advice on hard top alignment. I have to roll the window down a bit on the drivers side to open and close the door. If it were the passage side it would not be as big of a deal. I was able to remove the two rear screws that you cannot reach anyway to since down the wing nuts with a soft top down. Then I could move the top a bit to get it closer. Once I cinch down the latches it sucks it down too far forward. Maybe a window adjustment in combination with a little something else?

This is the window full up.






This is the window rolled down a bit. The gap to the weather strip when closed is a bit much. I could probably live with it if I just adjusted the window, but wondering if there is somethin more I can do. I made a small mark on the screw bracket as to where I think it needs to be, but the latches would suck it back again. (Don't look at the chip I made. It makes me a little sick seeing as how I did this trying to get it a bit better on fresh paint.) I would like to use the hard top more that most. Some think it is a selling point and they basically do not use it that much on a convertible, but I think it looks quite nice. Also being in Colorado there are a lot of nice days in the winter to drive and I would like to have the hard top a bit more user friendly.






Thanks I and advance … any experienced advice out there would be appreciated.

 

There are more adjustments on the soft top than the hard top. I found it best to adjust the windows and such to the hard top first. Then adjust the soft top to the car. Problem is if the soft top was installed to fit the car 1st, it may not fit correctly after you readjust for the hard top. Best scenario in my mind is to install hard top and adjust the car to fit the top. Then have the soft top installed to fit the car which may mean a new top to get both right. IMHO

Tom

 

I'm having the EXACT same issue since reinstalling the hard top. The shop manual talks about adjusting a stop, but I haven't pulled the door panel yet to play with it. Not sure the stop affects the window up positioning, though.

 

Is this the original top, to the car, has it been sitting upright not on a stand, it could be that it needs some time to conform back to the body, it also looks like its to far forward, and when you latch it down it brings it further still, i know when mine is off for a period of time I have some difficulty getting it all to line up.

 

If I recall correctly of something JohnZ posted one time;

At the factory when a hardtop option was installed the car was adjusted (side windows) to fit the hardtop, when a soft top was installed the soft-top was adjusted to fit the car.

 

OK
How do we adjust the windows to fit the hardtop?

 

. When you remove the door panel, there is a short "track" held to the inside of the door panel about half way up. Loosen those two nuts/bolts. If you have room, loosen your vent window post, and push it forward, paying particular attention to the top of the vent window. Tighten it up. Now roll you sideglass up to about 1 or 2" from the top, and push the top of the glass forward, noting which direction the short track that I referenced earlier moves. Push it hard to that position, and tighten. What you're going for here, is to "roll" the glass forward at the top, as it rolls up. Now adjust the front top stop, so that it stops the glass earlier, than in the back. It should go all the way up, but you want it to hit resistance before it reaches the top. 1/8" makes a huge difference. Now raise the back stop, so the back of the glass will roll forward as you finish raising it.
You should also read the service manual, as it details the assembly of the glass, post, and tracks. It also provides "some" adjustment information.

 

It is the original hard top. The soft top fits pretty good. If I get this solved I may need to look at the soft top adjustment again and that is OK. Thanks for the feedback. My next step maybe to take the door panel off and look at the window adjustment. From what I can see I can gain a bit from this, but I think I will still need a little more. It almost seems like I need to move the bracket on the hard top forward. Does any one know if this is welded or riveted on or is it adjustable with slots? … I took the trim off, but with out going deeper into removing weather stripping it was not immediately obvious. Thanks again.

 

I just wanted to add that the passenger side if fine. In looking at the top of the window it does not look that un-even … but maybe the entire roof is too far forward as you mentioned or the window frame is not as even as it appears … and the drivers side is too far back compared to the passengers side.

 

Thanks. I am prepared for having to re-do the soft top after … if (and hopefully) I can get this sorted on the hard top first.

 

 

You can't adjust the hardtop. Your windows are way out of adjustment. You adjust the windows to the hardtop, and then align the the soft top frame to fit the windows. I can see in your pictures that the front of the window is too high, the back of the window is too low, and the entire window is too far back. Read my post above.

 

You guys are awesome and I appreciate the knowledge out here. I should have checked before I put a chip in the paint messing around, but I guess the first one hurts the most. I may tackle this myself, unless anyone knows a good corvette guy/shop that could help and may have some experience with this in North Central Colorado? I am near Fort Collins. The shop that did most of the restoration is awesome, just not too close by. Thanks.

 

I wonder what happened here. I'm reading these to learn and I'm suprised at how many posts have problems and everyone chimes in but I dont' read a ton of them that follow up with what fixed the problem.

So I'm wondering if you ever fixed your windows and if so did you have to then adjust soft top?

 

He has not been on this Forum since July of 22.

 

That's the way things are around here. It doesn't look like he is coming back, so I'll answer your question. You always adjust the glass to the hardtop (if you have one) FIRST. The convertible top frame is then adjusted to the windows BEFORE the fabric is installed. There is a lot a adjustment in the convertible top frame, and there is none on the hardtop, so it only makes sense that you adjust the glass to fit your "known" openings, and then adjust the convertible top frame to fit those measurements. If you don't have a hardtop, and are only using the soft top, the usual practice is to get the glass to roll up to the top of the post, and level. Now, adjust the convertible frame to fit that alignment. If you can't get it to fit you then make adjustments to the glass, so that you have even alignment around the entire opening, with the front and back latched. You will, at that point, adjust the upper stops to the correct position. Check that the door opens and closes without any metal to glass contact, and that the window rolls up/down, going back into the exact position you adjusted. BTW, you need to perform these same checks when you adjust the glass to a hardtop (upper stops, open/close, roll up/down, then recheck)

The OP's glass was way out of alignment. In the pictures it looked like it was too far to the rear, too low. I would guess that the upper stops were not adjusted properly, and the the vent post was out of alignment. It also appeared that the window was "down" in the back, which means that the inner guide track was loose, or tilted the wrong way.

So, what that all means is that if he was able to adjust the glass to fit the hardtop, then it didn't fit the softop. There is very little adjustment left on a convertible frame, once the pads and fabric is installed, so the top probably had to come off.

 

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