75 hardtop

[Harmon C.]

Re: 75 hardtop

I have four convertibles with no holes for mounting a hardtop. I had one C-07 that had the nuts.I think if the nuts are present the car had a C-07
option.

[Dan D.]

Re: 75 hardtop

I don't think so. My '72 convertible was not shipped with a hardtop. When I bought a hardtop I had to drill the side nut holes. BTW...some years ago when I decided that I wanted a hardtop...by the time I located and restored the top, I had about 3K invested in what turned out to be the nicest garage ornament a guy could have. I'm not sorry I did it but the truth is I never use it.

[Joe L.]

Re: 75 hardtop

I don't think so. My '72 convertible was not shipped with a hardtop. When I bought a hardtop I had to drill the side nut holes. BTW...some years ago when I decided that I wanted a hardtop...by the time I located and restored the top, I had about 3K invested in what turned out to be the nicest garage ornament a guy could have. I'm not sorry I did it but the truth is I never use it.

Dan------

For the kind of use that most classic Corvettes see these days the hard-top is pretty much useless. I ordered my 1969 with a hard-top only. For all the years that I drove it day-to-day, the hard top was great. I didn't care, at all, about convertibles so I did not miss the soft top. After the car ceased to be a daily driver in 1977 and my thinking gradually changed, I added a soft top in 1986. The hard top was never on the car again. Still, I'm glad that I have the hard top and I'd never sell it.

As far as the side mount special nuts go, apparently I was incorrect in my belief that they were installed on all convertibles.

[Ross F.]

Re: 75 hardtop

Thanks for all the posts. But my mystery still is unsolved. If fact I have more questions now. I defiantly have the special nuts in the "ears" of my deck lid. I have no center hole and, after careful inspection, determined that there never was one. Could I have a 68 deck lid? The only marking on the lid I see is "GB". Could this car have come with a hardtop, not using a third hole? It is very late production "75" serial 42422 with at July 7, 1975 build date. Actually the ferensic part of this hobby is my favorite part.

[Ross F.]

Re: 75 hardtop

Okay,
New question. I am restoring the 75 hardtop I just bought. The glass is dated Nov '74, the headliner is dated May '75 . Does that make sense? Also, I am having the "C08" treatment to the top. Does anyone have experience taking the rear window trim off without destroying the trim or breaking the glass? I have hours into the task already as the previous owner felt massive doses or silicone would solve some unknown problem.
Is there a trick, or special tool?

[Don L.]

Re: 75 hardtop

Thanks for all the posts. But my mystery still is unsolved. If fact I have more questions now. I defiantly have the special nuts in the "ears" of my deck lid. I have no center hole and, after careful inspection, determined that there never was one. Could I have a 68 deck lid? The only marking on the lid I see is "GB". Could this car have come with a hardtop, not using a third hole? It is very late production "75" serial 42422 with at July 7, 1975 build date. Actually the ferensic part of this hobby is my favorite part.

Ross, GM executed an engineering change in October of 1971, adding a rectangular shaped rubber bumper behind each seat's tilt release button. These bumpers had threaded studs molded into them and these studs attached to the deck lid through drilled holes in the fiberglass deck. If your deck lid is from a '68, chances are that the 4 bumper holes will not be drilled/there. That is, of course, unless a previous owner didn't drill and mount bumpers to the deck.

I hope this helps.

[Dan D.]

Re: 75 hardtop

I am not absolutely certain, but I think some years had the center pin and some did not. My top did have the center pin. What I did was to remove the pin, itself from the bracket and cemented on a small triangular rubber gasket so the bracket wouldn't scratch the deck lid. When I picked up the top it also had these long threaded bolts in the rear corners. With the soft top down, I couldn't even reach the ends so I removed them and fitted the same kind of "push" pins that are on the soft top in the corners...no problems. Since my car's a driver, I wasn't concerned that this is definitely "incorrect." So, if you have other intentions, you might want to wait for some better information. Good Luck

[Ross F.]

Re: 75 hardtop

Thanks Don. Mine has the seat bumpers. I think as I just want the hardtop for casual, occasional use. I'm just going to attach it like a soft top.

[Robert R.]

Re: 75 hardtop

Hi Ross,
Most likely your car's previous owner did add on the hardtop, just as you want to now. As others have stated the smaller center hole would have indicated it came as factory option. For occasional use the soft top pins will work, just make sure they are extended enough for the deck latches to hold them. You will also need to remove the center threaded post if the hardtop has it. Just be careful not to raise the deck with the hardtop attached. I've seen some do it successfully, but it does cause stress on the deck.
Bob

[Joe L.]

Re: 75 hardtop

All-----


I really blew it on this one. After further checking, I find that the instruction to drill the holes for the special nuts IS found in the AIM C-07 section. I don't know how I missed that before. So, that pretty much confirms that the nuts were only added for convertibles with C-07 and my belief that they were installed for all convertibles is incorrect. I suppose it's possible that the guys at the factory occasionally screwed up and installed them for a non-C-07 car.

[Edward B.]

Re: 75 hardtop

Joe, where do you see that? I'm looking at my 68 and 69 AIM's and both shows the instructions for drilling the holes for the mounting bracket (Sheet A1 #1 - P/N 3912778), but not the holes for the deck lid special nut (Sheet A1 #3 - P/N 3727928).

Also, if you look at the adjustment instructions on Sheet A7 in the 69 AIM (not mentioned in the 68 AIM), it only states to drill the holes for the "hard top mounting brackets". Nothing in the instructions mentioning the drilling of the deck lid for the special nut.

Ed

[Joe L.]

Re: 75 hardtop

Joe, where do you see that? I'm looking at my 68 and 69 AIM's and both shows the instructions for drilling the holes for the mounting bracket (Sheet A1 #1 - P/N 3912778), but not the holes for the deck lid special nut (Sheet A1 #3 - P/N 3727928).

Also, if you look at the adjustment instructions on Sheet A7 in the 69 AIM (not mentioned in the 68 AIM), it only states to drill the holes for the "hard top mounting brackets". Nothing in the instructions mentioning the drilling of the deck lid for the special nut.

Ed

Ed-------


The 1968-73 AIM's do only show the addition of the 2 small holes for the bracket retaining screws. However, the 1974-75 AIM's show the addition of the 1/2" hole for the special nut. It may be that instruction was mistakenly omitted from from the 68-73 AIM's. However, I suppose it's also possible that things were actually different for 1968-73.

[Edward B.]

Re: 75 hardtop

In that case I would agree that it was left off the 68-73 AIM's and only cars that came with the hard top had the holes drilled. I say that because if all 68-73 convertibles got the nut, my car (along with Lyle, Dan and others) would have the holes and they don't. Of course, mistakes could have been made (and sometimes were), so there may be cars out there that DIDN'T come with the hard top but still have the holes (and even the nuts). A good example of this is the static collectors for radio equipped cars. I've seen non-radio cars (not just Corvette) that still came with the collectors.

Ed

[Richard K.]

Re: 75 hardtop

I added a hardtop to my 11/27/69 body in 1976. I had to drill the side mount holes in the decklid in addition to the rear center-mount hole to mount a 1971 hardtop that I purchased.

FWIW, I've collected some hardtop information by observing some cars w/hardtops, and stand-alone hardtops for sale at Carlisle:

Hardtops built with the stainless tips on the rear points, with no center bracket to mount to the decklid:

JX window date (May '68), mounted on a 1969 car (I should have noted vin #'s on these cars, but didn't. sorry)
NV window date (Jan '69), mounted on a 1969 car
AX window date (Sept '68) mounted on a 1969 car

Hardtop built with the stainless tips on the rear points, and with center bracket to mount to the decklid:

CV window date (Nov '69), not mounted to a car

So, was this CV date originally mounted to a '70, or a '69? The seller of the hardtop told me '69. So, there is a possibility that late-production '69's with the C07 option had the hole drilled in the center of the deck for mounting the hardtop.

A little heads-up, if you drill the hole for the ferrule to mount a hardtop with the center bracket, be aware that you need to drill into a subtle peak-line on the deck. Use a device that will keep your drill bit from wandering.

[Jimmy P.]

Re: 75 hardtop

Guys,
My 73 convertible has a hole in the center of the deck lid and now has a black rubber plug in it. The car had a hardtop on it at one time in its past because it still has the outline of where the top rested on the deck lid. I can't see any bolt holes you guys are talking about on the sides of my deck lid I took a few pictures and have included them below. Also, I now have a question as to whether my car came originally with a hard top. I do have my original build sheet. On the left side where the options are listed it shows C05 which is the code for Folding Top. Would that be the same location on the build sheet for the C07 hardtop code? Tom Russo and I discussed my build sheet extensively. I don't think a hard top code would have been present in the center of the sheet where much of it was missing where it was glued to the tank. Other visible codes in the center area were N40,QRM,U69,VK3 FRT License-N,. These are the only options on my car. We did agree that perhaps the only one missing would have been the code for the white top.