No stacks of dimes were harmed for this post...

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Over the past couple summers of driving the track roadster I've often thought about making a top for it. The sun can be brutal , not to mention the rain - like at Kalamazoo a couple years ago.

I have seen pictures of a couple of hinged tops and knew that I would have to do the same or I wouldn't be able to get in or out. I decided I would build the top out of .050" aluminum to keep the weight down.

First I had to make tops for the sort of Duvall windshield that has bare glass at the top. I made paper patterns and sandwiched 3 pieces of 1/4" 6061 sheet together with the center piece smaller to allow for fitting the part over the glass. I held the pieces together with 8-32 ss flathead allen screws and fabricated a 16ga bridge to hold the tops to the lower section.

I made the hinge carrier from 6061 1/2"x1" bar stock and attached it to the front of the roll bar with nut-serts and 10/32 ss allens. The rest of the framework for the top was made from 1/2" aluminum extruded angle from Lowes. Not pictured id a center cross bow made out of sheet stock with riveted upper and lower flats to create a sort of girder piece. I did as much assembly as possible with screws and jigging bits so that I could TIG the parts together on my welding table. Eventually though I knew I would have to do some of the welding on the car because I couldn't duplicate all the angles. I was worried about screwing up the MSD box with the TIG welding so I just removed it from the car. Better safe than sorry.

The top covers are made in two sections for  easier assembly but of course, more welding.

It took me a couple weeks to get this far with button head ss screws and TIG spot welds. There is no danger that I will be putting any experienced aluminum TIG welder out of a job, but I'm making progress.

Charlie

[moose]

Flows well with the car. Are you goung to radius the transition to the back?

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Yeah, already done...just didn't post that shot. I'll put one up next time on that desk top.

Charlie

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Here's a couple more shots. One that shows the center cross "bow" and one that shos the passenger side completed.

[moose]

Will it stay bare or padded covering???

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Bare for the foreseeable future but once I'm on the roas with it I'll take it to the fellow who did my tonneau covers and see what he thinks about covering it.

Charlie