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A 200 lb. rated hoist/120V a.c. (You can also buy one that operates with a spare 12V car battery)
Park the car exactly where you will be removing/installing the hardtop.
Make sure the garage door will fully open without hitting the hoist or lifting cable.
Add additional cross beam support to the top of ceiling joints that will hold the hoist assembly. (It's there..just hidden by the box-frame)
Add a receptacle into existing ceiling wiring (constant 120V wiring or to light wiring that has an OFF_ON wall switch.)
Route the long Control Cable along the ceiling to the wall and hook it to a hook threaded into the wall to keep it out of the way until needed.
Buy or fabricate a Lifting Strap that can easily be connected to the hardtop for lifting purposes.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
I found a used lift for a mercedes top for less than $100 bucks. It has swing away arms and fleece lining. It works great. I added a different hoist from harbor freight that lets me use a electric drill up and down versus the typical boat trailer crank
In 2018 I purchased a complete system from top hoist.com. It came with a Harbor Freight Electric Winch and a special fabricated pole/strap assembly to grab and hold the top. I looked and the price has gone up, you can buy the manual winch for less bucks. My works great the only issue I encountered was that the first time I lifted the top off my car, the long rusty rear threaded studs scratch my rear deck. I didn’t have the straps adjusted correctly so the top was lifting level. My next rip was to HD to get two 12 x12 metal plates that I cut slots in to fit around the latches on the rear deck. Then I used some vinyl remnants to cover both side of the plates. Now my deck is protected from the threaded studs. If you would like I can take pic of my vinyl covered plates.
Here a picture of the straps / arm the attaches to the hard top.
I used thin rectangular aluminum sheets from HD. Then covered with vinyl remnants, used spray glue to adhere to the metal. I cut out a slot that goes around the chrome bezel that sits on the top of the deck lid. Once the top is lowers to the car you can lift the top a hair and slid out the plate. I am lazy and only covered one side of the plate, the covered vinyl side is touching the car. Let me know if you have any questions.
This how it would sit on your car, vinyl down on paint. Here is the side that touches your paint.
I used the same type setup as doorgunner, except with a bigger hoist to lift the body of a C-1 as well as to drop in the engine and trans...(It was mounted to steel I beam...) Worked great!
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
