A couple of years ago I bought a hardtop for my 90 vette without the hardware and never used it. I do have the two side brackets and nothing else, I need to know how it's secured to the car at the windshield and on the rear deck. How can I tell if I bought an original or a repoduction? This top was made in Bowling Green Kentucky. Hows the headliner attached to the top? Any help would be appreciated .

 

Your profile shows that you have a convertible. The hard top, if made in BG, is probably an OEM. From what I understand, when the verts were to be equipped with the hard top option, the cars were taken to another facility and the hard tops put on. Then the vettes were returned to the factory.
If you have the side brackets that attach behind the driver and passenger pillers, you need the bolts that came with the brackets to attach the top to the car at the pillars. The bolts are metric M8-1.25 thread pitch; the
M8-1.25x20 bolt works perfectly. Use 5/16 inch washers. For the windshield, you need a torx wrench. It looks like the same one that is used on the coupe removable top; and is available from MAMW and others. There are "floating" bolts attached to the hard top at the windshield bracket; each bracket is just above the sun visors. The floating bolts fasten into the windshield in these brackets. The rear bolts that are also attached to the hard top and hang down from the hard top much like the convertible top pins, but are loose instead of rigid; they slide into the convertible top fasteners on the rear deck. You need the 8mm and 7mm ratchet wrench to tighten them once they are in the convertible top fasteners. The rear bolts slide in, but they must be tightened for the hard top to seal onto the rear deck. Ecklers sells the KYYSTAR Factory wrench for $50+. Sears sells the same ratchet for about $6. Both have the Patent No. 2,500,835 on them. Ecklers part no. was RBM 0708 and Sears part no. is 42171. The ratchets are identical. You need the thin rachet to fit between the bolt head and the hard top rear bracket. If you do not have the bolts, then you are in for a surprise as they cost about $6 each from Chevy and you need 14 of them.
Hope this helps on your question on attaching the hard top to the convertible. I really like mine; all my corvette convertibles had and have factory hard tops.

 

The front bolts are stuck in the top of the windshield. The rear bolts are stuck in the hardtop. There are 10 bolts that hold the 2 side brackets. You have an original. The repros don't have the roll bar so there were no side brackets (They are just a fiberglass shell).

 

:I love this site, it's a gold mine of information. Much thanks to Mtnvettes and Ynk1121. Vette owners are a breed apart from other car enthusiast.

 

Ask and you shall receive....!

Gregg-73

 

You are more than welcome and thanks for saying thanks. There are many of us who do post our thanks on the site when we've been helped and it is appreciated. I wish that there had been a site like this when I was first into vettes in 1960, but then there was no internet and we had to rely on the local Corvette Club members.

 

Here's a tip on how to get the hardtop off without pulleys or without another to help.
Place a heavy blanket over the rear deck. Unbolt everything. Lift the back of the hardtop up and pull the blanket under it. Then lift the front of the hardtop free and slide the entire thing backwards using the blanket for a coaster. It is light enough to lift by yourself. Then set it on a piece of cardboard and use a box or a stool to support the front.
Be careful though as you can scratch the rear deck up if you don't have the blanket positioned correctly.
Just reverse the procedure to put it back on.
For the long term though either buy a pulley lift kit from a supplier or make one yourself to get it up and out of the way. It is too easy to drop something on it or run into it if you leave it stored on the floor or tipped up against the wall.

 

Thanks for the tip it will come in handy, I don't always have someone around to give me a hand. I do intend to get one of those pulley kits so I can store it off the floor.

 

so there are two different tools that GM made for the hardtop?

 

No problem.

Correct. There is a torx ratchet, and a ratcheting wrench.

 

If you get a pulley kit for storage, get a very heavy duty one as instructions on some of them say not for long term storage. I would think twice about storing the hard top with a pulley system as the stress on the weatherstripping could affect the tightness (fit) when the top is put on the car. Might want to build a shelf unit or something like that to store the top off the ground. I use the mobile hard top rack available from MAMW and others. It is expensive (about $150-$175, comes with a cover), but it does the job in storage and allows me to move the hard top without damaging it. In the 1960s - 1980s, I stored my hard tops with the windshield edge on the floor and the interior side facing against a wall. This never did hurt the hard top and the mobile one I cited above uses the same principle.

 

Another alternative for cheap storage is PVC pipe.
A little PVC, some glue and some pipe insulation.

 

That is a nice set up that you made. It looks like the mobile cart I have. Did you design it after the commercial one? Yours had to be much cheaper and does the same thing as the commercial one.

 

Great suggestions, does anyone know of a particular brand they can recommend?
Tks,

 

Brand of what?

This is an eight year old thread. I doubt anything in this thread is still manufactured.