darkangel95

Has anyone ever done the opposite of the usual t-top conversion and converted a t-top car into a hard top car? I don't see why it shouldn't be possible. The T/A I owned before this one had a hard top and I liked it alot more for some reason. I mean the t-tops are nice but I personally just liked the lines of the hard top alot more.

So what do you guys think can it be done?

ReNxWar

I'm no expert, but I highly doubt it considering what it would take. You'd have to weld up the pieces taken off on the left and right side, as well as somehow put the missing roof piece on..which would involve ALOT of work to make it look halfway decent. Instead of going thru all that trouble, want to trade? Mines a hardtop .

Pandamonkey

Wow........there's a switch.....

I would guess it would be much too costly to do a reverse t-top fitting.

Simply trading for a similar but hardtop Fbody seems the way to go.

EviLZ28

Yes, It can be done. You need to buy the side braces and weld them back in. GM does sell these and they are about 20.00 bucks for each side. The big money part is the roof. You would have to replace it. They are 500 and change. Not to mention pulling the glass and getting a new weatherstip for it and a new headliner. It would cost ya some cash to change it to a hard top unless you could find a donor car. Then it would be cheaper. I have a spare roof but it is from a t-top car. Sorry, I scrapped the hard top one I had.

meissen

The good part about this idea is that with how many people are doing the conversions, if you could find someone reputable around you that's going from a hardtop to a ttop, couldn't you just trade scraps? You could give him the seals and the ttops and he could give you the metal piece (if he doesn't botch it all up) that he cuts out, and his roof (again if he doesn't botch it all up)... don't know if that'd actually work, maybe not, just a random idea... in any case, you can always sell the ttops and get some cash.

AronZ28

This would be a great idea for people who want a 1998-2002 hardtop Trans Am. Always p!ssed me off GM rammed them down your throat if you got the T/A. Might be cheaper to convert a hardtop Formula to a T/A though

darkangel95

Yeah that always pissed me off on the 98-02's, what I really want is a hardtop WS6, I guess I would have to convert it though. I have a donor car that is hardtop but my dad wants that one so I can't go hacking it up. I had no I idea if it would even be possible, I know everyone on here is usually wanting to convert to the t-tops but I am just not a big fan of them. I guess I should have just fixed my other T/A when it was messed up instead of getting another one.

So I guess it can be done it would just take finding the parts and then finding someone to do it. I have a hard top car sitting here under a shelter maybe can get some ideas from it.

darkangel95

Actually that sounds like a good idea I just don't know that many people down here that even have hard tops. In fact I have only seen maybe 4-5 total in the past couple of years, excluding the v6's. And the other T/A that I had is the only hard top T/A I have seen down here.

darkangel95

Hey Evil how much was the conversion to the 98-up front end? I was thinking about doing this when I got my car painted. Thanks for the ideas on the hardtop conversion, I will look into that.

Do you think that the top from a hardtop camaro would work, I have never directly compared the roof on the two, but I would think that they were the same.

EviLZ28

The front end conversion can be expensive unless you can find parts used. I got all the parts on the yellow T/A on ebay for 1400 and that is including the Ram air hood. The Blue T/A was about 2800 for all new parts. You may be able to find parts cheaper on ebay as the prices have come down alot on used parts. You could even find a Ram air hood with minimal damage and fix it. As for the roof, Yes a Camaro roof is the same as a Firebird, T/A.

MustangEater82

You can do it...

First you will need the side braces, weatherstripping channels and weatherstripping. Just need to remove all the t-top hardware... you will need to cut up part of the weatherstripping channel I beleive but it should be too hard.

THe hard part woudl be lining them up so when you do the weatherstripping channel that it lines up without any gaps in the seal.


Next hard part... that composite roof. I heard its pretty much impossible to get a used solid one piece composite roof. I'd get it the part from a hardtop car, then set it in and silocone it in. however they do it from the factory, not sure. Then just fiberglass or bondo it up with the rear part.

Its not that impossible people have done much more projects on a car.

Its harder then a t-top conversion.


btw... you could sell pretty much all of your stuff as a t-tp conversion an easy $200-600 I have seen them go for. Might be able to work with a guy that does a t-top conversion or get a parted out/wrecked, or whatever car to work wtih.

jpack24

T-top conversion just done here. Have weatherstriping and a-pilliar covers in mint condition if you are interested for a hard top car. Also have headliner.

Z95m6

Hardtops look so much better, i would love to do it but i don't think there is anyway to get an undamaged hardtop roof to put back in unless you can buy the piece new.

trax

First of all, forget a stock steel roof. Get something LIGHT, like a carbon fiber roof from Blaine Fabrication. Check this out:

While you're at it, pick up one of his 7 pound carbon fiber hoods for $700.

MustangEater82

On 4th gens camaros its a composite material I think If you searh I weighed it, I still have my roof I think it was like 9 lbs... the crossmembers are like 4 lbs each.

I have heard that there is NO way to get an entire 1 piece roof of of a wrecked hard top. Can you get it new?

I'd just leave the part you have on your car then get the rest of the roof off a hardtop car, get it on, then bondo/fiberglass or whatever to get it to look right at the "seam" then go form there. Might even be able to get rid of that "ridge" if you want.