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RE: Which Top Header Rail?

To: mgs@autox.team.net, "Patton Dickson" <kpdii@softhome.net>
Subject: RE: Which Top Header Rail?
From: "Denise Thorpe" <xyzabcde@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 17:14:51 -0500
Patton Dickson asked:

> I already bought the stow away frame, so that decision has been taken
care 
> of.  After reading the responses, I looked at the top with the plus, and
it 
> had been repainted black.  Since It had the plugs I will use that.  The 
> question now is how best to strip it and what color gray to paint it.  I 
> need to do the same to the top bows anyhow.  What are those plugs made 
> of?  I would hate to ruin those getting the paint off.

The plugs are plastic.  If you look closely, they have a dot in the middle.
I've never taken one off but they look like standard interior plugs. 
You've probably seen them, they come new with that dot sticking up in the
middle because it's actually a rod.  They have four feet on the bottom and
when the button is in place, you push the rod in and it pushes the feet out
on the other side to hold it in place.  If you have an aftermarket voltage
regulator, the cover will be held on with these gizmos.  You should be able
to get new ones, but maybe not the right size.  I'd just mask them off.

People have powder-coated the top bow and frame with good results.  Powder
coating is available in almost any color and the shop will sand blast the
part first.  Don't forget to have them mask the plugs.  Someone was just
singing the praises of POR-15 to me, but I think it only comes in black.

> So, your experience is that a 67 could have either latches, but chrome 
> indicates earlier.  I "think" that my car is pretty early from some other 
> clues so I could go with the chrome. The brushed ones look a little
better 
> though.

All of my '67's have chrome latches.

> As for tops I saw that there is one out there that is a stow away with
the 
> zip out window.  I know down here in Texas sometimes you need the top to 
> block the sun and those bikini tops are too expensive for occasional 
> use.  Before I buy the top, I do want to get the correct tonneau without 
> headrests instead of the later one that came with the car for running
around.

I seem to have lost the message, but someone was asking about the different
types of stowaway top, but there's only one kind of stowaway top.  It's the
fold down top that has multiple configurations, and so, multiple different
ragtops.  But it's worse than I said.  I haven't seen this, but I've been
told that there are two different kinds of early fold down frame that use
different tops and one is unavailable.  That'll turn out to be the one I
have.

Now that I've cleared that up, yeah right, I'll confuse the issue more by
telling you about a custom configuration you can make.  I haven't seen a
stowaway top that comes with a zip-out rear window but it is possible to
achieve this using a late fold down ragtop that has the zip-out window and
a stowaway frame.  Listen carefully.  The stowaway frame is taller than the
late fold down frame, so to use the late fold down ragtop with the early
frame, the frame needs to be cut down.  You cut about an inch out of the
larger side of the middle bow of the stowaway frame, and with minimal
bending, the stock late fold down ragtop will fit on it.  I'm assuming that
you'd want to do this because the late stock top is cheaper than a
specially made stowaway top with a zipper.

That's absolutely everything I know and my head is now empty.

Denise

--- Denise Th

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