Custom Rag Top

[gtkid2002]

Howdy everyone. Right now my rag top has been removed, but before I pulled it, it had shrunk to the point that the corners flapped up on the freeway, and let water in. Now I'm disassembling it piece by piece in an attempt to make a new top for it. The top was so far gone that the edges cracked into pieces and the back trim piece by the rear window was full of what I think is dirt.

So far I've only gotten one side apart, and the other side is going to be for how things piece together. The burgundy fleece was just some cheap fabric that will be used for a mock up. From there I can use it as a template for others.

Now I'm just wondering, but would anybody else be interested in the pattern once it's been made? Or if anybody would want to do this to one of their old tops as well and double check the work?

This is how far I've gotten. And it looks worse in person. And the ragtop frame is in awful condition, so I am kinda screwed on that one.

[NJFIAT1981]

Seems like a lot of effort and time when a new one can be purchased online for around $300 in Canvas. Vinyl is about $100.00 less. Good luck with your project. George

[azygoustoyou]

I bought some boot material to make a new boot. I have a heavy duty sewing machine. It will just get through vinyl to sew my seats. I don't think it will be able to sew the boot material. Your going to need a really good sewing machine to sew into the top. And if you do get through it. The other problem is going to be making the stitches look similar. Good luck and keep us posted on how it comes out.

[Foster48x]

Your going to need a pretty heavy duty sewing machine to get through thick vinyl or canvas top material. So, unless you already have a machine it really wouldn't be worth it.

Brady, what kind of boot material did you buy?

Rick

[gtkid2002]

NJFiat - Where have you seen a 100 dollar top? The cheapest vinyl top I've been able to find was 350 bucks. I'm planning on doing the entire thing for right around 100 bucks. Final draft stuff will be using Seamark marine waterproof canvas. Although if I can find a 100 dollar top, I'll jump on that. I just can't afford a 300 dollar right now, and it's getting soggier outside by the day.

[azygoustoyou]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... MEWAX%3AIT
Don't know about the quality.
Any updated pic's

[gtkid2002]

I emailed the seller, and the Haartz canvas ones are $250, and some "german canvas" ones are 350. From what I can tell it looks pretty cheap. Thanks for the link though Azgoustoyou. If it comes down to it, I can just settle for the vinyl one, but for now I'm gonna stick with the one I'm working on. It uses the marine version of the stuff used on Haartz canvas tops.

No updated pictures yet, but I get to go to a giant fabric store tomorrow and start looking at cheap canvas. I've been trying to de-glue my ragtop frame, and re-paint it, but I didn't get pictures because it started raining

So far the overall plan is after it's made, secure it to the beams with industrial velcro, but actually glue it to the very front piece. I'm gonna seal the seams with a generous amount of shoe-goo, and I'm still thinking about what to do about the rear window. I'm really tempted to get some sort of tempered glass or something and glue it on, because I would kill for a rear window defroster.

And I'm attempting to copper plate the latches. I don't know how that's going to go, but currently it's very messy. If that fails, I will use spray paint. Instead of chrome accents I'm hoping to go with copper accents. Horray for being able to customize!

[red107]

My fiat has been through several vinyl tops over its life span mainly because of cold weather. The back windows would crack. In 2002 when I moved to Florida I got a canvas top and never looked back. Good luck on making your own top. Most vendors sell decent tops. As far as a glass rear that would be nice. But with the way to top folds you might want to re-think that. Unless your thinking of the set up that the miata uses. That back window unzips on the older models. If you don't unzip the top you could damage it. Found that out the hard way when borrowing a friends. Not sure about the new ones. Post pics if you get it done. I would like to see it.

[gtkid2002]

Update:

Misc update: I got the last ceramic internal heater valve off of Classic Ricambi.com, so I'm psyched!

Anyways!
Got four yards of black duck cloth from Fabric Depot a few days ago. Not suitable for a permanent top, but good enough for a template. Should also be sewable with a normal/medium duty sewing machine and a jeans needle. For the final draft with the Seamark fabric, I have an old sewing machine in the garage that I was kind of given, and I'll just get that old tank going. It has a 1/2 hp electric motor on it I believe.

I started stripping the old top. Doing this on an ancient top with an xacto knife really sucks. Half the time the fabric gets cut or it disintegrates when i'm pulling it apart. It's a slow going, as I had to cut everything, then a few days later trace it. I should be able to get some of the cutting and sewing started next week.

I kinda take tons of pictures, but right now I can't get my internet to load photobucket right now, but I'll edit this and post them later or something. Here's one I did get though.
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g320/ ... CF0819.jpg

[gtkid2002]

Began cutting out the parts yesterday. Had to completely butcher the old top, but at least I have a pattern now, excluding the main top piece. Going in to town in a bit for the four bolts to hold the top frame to the car (old hardware was so badly rusted and seized all but one snapped). Now that everything is cut it's just a matter of attaching it all in the right places and the test fitting can begin soon. Here's some more pictures.


Also decided to go with a plain cotton duck fabric. It won't quite go with the green, but I'm going to be repainting the car soon enough if everything goes to plan.

[gtkid2002]

Yaaay. Postbump.

Anyways, got the testing top about 90 percent done. I went with a black canvas duck as stated before, shrunk it in a nice hot wash, and lined it with 4 gauge clear vinyl on the interior for waterproofing. I'll be sealing the threads and window with shoe goo. The window is done with what I believe to be 12 gauge clear vinyl sheeting stuff, which is not DOT approved. Which I don't really care about much at this point. I just need a basis top for what to expect.

Anyways, got all but three parts sewn on, and the flaps that are riveted to the ragtop frame didn't get placed quite properly (oops), but they can be extended an inch or so to work better. I'm grommeting those so that I can remove the ragtop without MAJOR difficulty on that aspect. Although it still seems amusing that I'll be gluing the rest of it, but I might purchase some more industrial velcro and just use screws. I don't plan on taking this top off much until the new one is ready.

Photobucket just hates me, so I have one crappy picture up of the non-completed top (three bits hadn't even been cut out yet) being test laid across the ragtop frame rails. I think my rails warped from sitting funny in my garage. The almost final test fitting should be tomorrow sometime, then I get to work on the insulation layers. I got some "natural" cotton batting that is rather dense that I'll be using to keep the heat from my new heater in! (Totally pleased with that. I haven't tested for cooling problems yet, but I bought a thing of prestone just in case crap hits the heater core)

Anyways! Less talkie, more pics to prove it happened!









UPDATE:
Got the new one finished enough to try and put it on the car. Fit exactly like the old one did. Not very well. If somebody could possibly take pictures of the interior corners by the rear windows and post them, that would be awesome. I'm gonna end up re-doing a lot of the top because it doesn't seem to have been sewn evenly enough. It got kinda baggy just behind where the passenger's head would be. It -did- at least make it on the car though. I also have to move the strips where the wire goes on the passenger side over a bit. Apparently there was a decent sized gap there, and I forgot about it.

I'm not giving up on this, but it's going back to the scissors for some improvements and revisions. Not bad considering I had a badly warped template to begin with. It was better than the one I got with the car, but not really enough to justify trying to hobble it on the car.

Here's some more updated pictures on what I mean.

[gtkid2002]

Ok, so I stripped down the top to only the very top part, and redid everything. I enhanced the curves on the pieces that needed it badly, and I redid the rear window panel. I placed the gap to about three inches in the middle between the two plastic things, and after the test fit I did a few hours ago, I shortened the length of the top piece, and installed some thick padding on the corners by the rear window. It won't stay in the slot thing without a wire in place, so tomorrow I get to buy some steel cable and attempt to replicate it. I don't recall if it even had a wire in the top when I pulled it, but I sure can't find it now. It was cold and my hands were a little too cramped to try and operate a camera, so I didn't take pictures tonight. I'll update it tomorrow with a hopefully successful fitting on the car. I need to figure out what to use for cable end clamps, and then I'll be set.

[azygoustoyou]

Try this place before you buy all of your stuff. They have good prices. I think they have the rear windows too.
http://www.atrim.com/index.html

[gtkid2002]

Well. the top was on the car today. I was just test fitting it. It worked for the most part. I have to re-sew the rear window and top parts. This is the third time I have to redo it because of excess sag inbetween the second and third support bars. Everything else excluding the driver side plastic came out well enough.

Except this time it rained.

So the vinyl helped keep my head dry.

But the seams leaked water everywhere else. My legs were wet from the top of the front window, the bottom of all the seats were wet somehow, the back seat was drenched, and it continued to drip at a rapid pace on my two minute drive home, where I proceeded to rip the top off and tarp the car as fast as possible.


Lesson learned: TEST FIT WHEN IT IS DRY ONLY.

Now I have to wait for it to dry out again, then sew it, then test fit it again, install the wire, then shoe goo every seam with a ton of the crap, then pull the frame and attach it, then put it back on the car.


If anybody else every tries this project, HAVE PATIENCE. It's seriously depressing when you spend ten hours getting everything right and it doesn't fit right, and you get soaked on a simple test run. I'm not giving up just yet though. If I can't get that rear seam to work though, I'm just going to redo it was best as possible, shoe goo the hell out of it, and cobble it on the car, and tarp it for the winter. I don't really want to, but I'm running out of options.

[courtenay]

GT - while I do appreciate your tenacity, I can't imagine many people tackling a project like this when a new top can be had for a few hundred dollars.
Good on you, though, for sticking with it. Stay dry buddy!!