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About a month ago I decided to put my hard top back together and put it on the car. I always loved the look of cars with the hard top. Maybe even better than coupes. My issue with the hard top is we travel in the car a lot and access to the luggage area by reaching behind the seats is a pain. Blue Stripe showed me just unlatch the windshield latches and deck lid latch and lift it all up as an assembly. Brilliant! But the assembly is heavy and how do I keep it open to use it? I first made a prop from a 3/4" wood dowel cut to length and worked fine. Until I bumped it and the top came down like a guillotine! Pretty scary actually. So I ended up making two brackets and installed Pneumatic struts. It wa a bit of trial and error finding the right hardware, strut pressure and mounting locations but I think its good. We took a trip, about 2300 mikes the other week. Different hotel every night and it worked well. A few pics.
The deck lid springs are new as of a couple years ago. No way they will hold the weight of the deck lid and the top.
Tom
Oh Noes. The ORIGINAL deck lid springs, designed to support a 12 lb piece of fiberglass won’t support the additional 60 pounds? NCRS is never going to accept this.
Although the car is far from correct I did not want to modify it or the top and something that could be easily be reversed. The bracket I added to support the upper strut mount stud is bolted on the deck lid at the latch and hinge using existing bolt locations. The lower strut mount stud is installed through the soft top frame mount plate, upper threaded hole, at the door jam. The strut lays horizontally over the wheel well in the storage area when the top/deck-lid is down and latched.
Tom, great idea. I think hardtop cars are really the best looking of bunch. Can you kindly elaborate about the force of the struts along with the length of stroke. I have been scheming using gas filled struts to replace the springs, but thought they would cause a mis-fit of the auxcillary top panel. This is a much more elegant approach to the problem. I love it...
Thanks, Michael
Tom, this is exceptionally well done and obviously functional. Anyone would be proud to design such a solution. I hope you will share some of the dimensions and details with the rest of us including the supplier of the struts and up close images of the bracket mounting points. Thanks for showing your results. As the previous posted noted. an "elegant design".
Tom, this is such a nice job. As the previous posted noted, an "elegant design" indeed. I hope that you share more details and images including images of the brackets, details of the mounting and dimensions of material as well as the source of the struts and their cost. Will save your results and put them under "G" for genius.
Brilliant solution to a problem that's been around for quite some time!! I'm with you, I also thing the convertible with the hard top mounted is the best looking of the midyear Corvettes. There's a great deal of luggage space behind the two seats and your solution makes it even more accessible that the coupe in my opinion! Again, brilliant, should have been a factory option included with the hardtop IMO!!
As far as holding up the top for access to the rear, I've only been successful in holding it up for 8 to 12 inches or so with a closed cardboard box, and then only to enable better access to the rear hardtop hold down bolts at the rear glass. Really doesn't do much for luggage access, and no way I'd ever try to support the top fully raised with a dowel or similar, for the exact same reason/result you described.
Add me to the line of folks who'd like more information on dimensions, mounting, length and capacity of struts, and all the other information required to install one similar on my car! I think I'll hold the top up and open with an overhead hoist in my garage while doing the installation though!!
Is marketing in the future? 
Oh I love the look of a convertible with the hard top on it too. 
Hard Top Mod
