I talked to someone at Bloomington a few years ago who restored conv. top frames (c2) and put on new correct conv. tops without the car being there. They had a jig to hold the restored bows & said the new top would fit fine. Does any one know who this could have been ? And if you used them how did it work? ...Bill
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Re: C2 conv. tops
Bill, would it have been Ernie Coffman maybe?Dick Whittington -
Re: C2 conv. tops
I dont see how that would be possible. Each car is a little different and you may or may not get a good fit. Each frame was fitted to each car. The tops came to the line semi assembled with provisions for adjustment. If they were all the same,I would think that the factory would have used completed units if possible.Comment
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Re: C2 conv. tops
I dont remember who it was. I do have a card from Coffman with conv.tops written on the back but it could have been someone else. I agree with Wayne all cars are not the same. But their story was a "hard top fits" and its not adjustable ?Im just looking for opinions. BillComment
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Re: C2 conv. tops
Bill.
It may have "Sullys Tops". (Their adds show a Leprechaun and a shamrock) I'm not even sure they are still in business.
I also spoke to them at a Bloomington show, but that was 10 years ago.
tcComment
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Re: C2 conv. tops
I think that Wayne has a good point, but I believe that you could do the final adjustments.Dick WhittingtonComment
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Re: C2 conv. tops
It would take a leprechaun and a shamrock to make one fit all of the cars off the line, but I have been corrected by Jack H. off line and he says that they were shipped to the line completely assembled.Comment
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Close.....
Initial thread asked whether there was or could be 'jig technology' to pre-assemble a folding top. My off line comments to Wayne were:
(1) In all years segments (C1-C3), there were darn few adjustment for a hardtop to fit it's target car. Just weatherstrip fore/aft and in/out. They supposedly met the same factory water test as soft top only cars.
[Aside...Hum, how did they water test 2-top cars at St. Louis???]
(2) Thread specifically address a C2 (mid-year) and I pointed out the Folding Top Installation Proceedure that's common to C1-C2 AIM books (includes cutting, triming, cementing fabric into place on the frame) ceases to be a part of Shark (C3) AIM books.
(3) In both C2 and C3 AIM books, the folding top is called out as an assembly but it's unclear (without pulling drawings by PN) how much of the assy was completed in-house and where (on the final line? on a body feeder line?) vs. how much was done as a pre-assembled purchased part.
Seems clear to me that an assy jig for soft top fabrication and fit is well within the realm of possibility. Otherwise there'd have been hand customization of hardtop dimensions beyond the simple final adjustment of weatherstripping.
Those who were there and know factory tooling of the era(s), please chime in! Also, even back to C1, the description of the water test in our AIM books looks pretty grueling (number of water nozzle heads, position, gal/minute flow rate, plus manometer pacing and vacuum insertion into the cockpit to simulate in-motion water penetration force). What I didn't see when reading about the water test was: (1) what were the accept/reject criteria? and (2) was this done on a sample lot basis or 100% of production basis?
If every car built was subjected to the water test and the failure criteria was a single drop of moisture penetration, then our notion of 'these cars always leaked like a sieve' is out in left field!Comment
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Re: C2 conv. tops
Bill -
Remember Corky Baily? He came to a club meeting years ago and talked about the water test and how he packed putty here and there to close up leaks. And then the person who toured the car lot behind the plant after a heavy rain with a bent screw driver, reaching under cars to pop out the plugs so water would drain.
I'll look in the phone book for him, maybe he would know about the soft tops, i.e., how they arrived at the assembly point, complete or requiring assy.Comment
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Re: Close.....
Jack -
Soft top assemblies for C1/C2 were built up by the supplier on a "jig" buck that duplicated the design attaching/sealing surfaces, but the front header portion of the top fabric was left loose to be final-fitted/glued/stapled in place on the Final Line at St. Louis when the top assembly was installed, to accommodate fore-aft body build variations. C3 soft tops arrived fully-assembled from the supplier, with no St. Louis work required other than bolting them in place. As an aside, convertible tops in Fisher Body plants that supplied steel bodies for passenger cars were built-up in the assembly plant on an off-line carousel-type buck fixture from an assembled bare top frame, pads, top skin, and all manner of staples, adhesives, seals, etc., and the completed top was installed on convertible bodies as a fully-assembled and finished top.
On 2-top cars, the hardtop was installed on the Trim Line (before Body Drop) and the glass was adjusted to its seals. The hardtop was removed after Body Drop and placed in a rack, and the soft top was installed on the Final Line and adjusted to fit the previously-adjusted glass. After the car passed through Final Paint Repair and came off the end of the Final Trim Line (for seats, door trim panels, front carpets, console trim, etc.), it was water-tested off-line with the soft top in place (just like 1-top convertibles), then the hardtop was re-installed and it went through water test again, then moved on to shipping.
The Engineering specs for the water test in the A.I.M. are the same ones spelled out for use in the passenger car plants, but the acceptance criteria were seldom adhered to at Corvette. All cars were water-tested, and all were shippedComment
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