Came across this speedster replica on BaT yesterday. The hard top got my attention. Would anyone be able to tell if this is a Glasspar top from Fiberfab?
I'm guessing, as with anything with our cars, nothing would be plug and play? Procuring this top would still requiring additional funds to get it to seal correctly?
https://bringatrailer.com/list...peedster-replica-27/
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@Kevin - Bay Area, there is another post about this car and hardtop under Auction Discussion.
It looks similar to a Glaspar to me. But, the rear window is different from the Fibersteel top. The Fibersteel top is for an original Speedster. It would probably need to be stretched to fit a replica.
I had a replica with a Fibersteel Glaspar hardtop. It was a long story, which I told in detail in about 2005 or so. I have no idea if the story is still available with a search, but it was a doozie.
I saw the auction when I got the email from BaT that there was an auction for a replica 356 starting up. I actually scoured the pictures to determine if the car was mine. I don’t think it is, but I’m floating around on a big boat off the coast of Haiti right now and can’t check my old records to be sure.
However, I’m 99.9% sure that’s a Fibersteel top. If it is, it cost somebody some loooong money (experience talking here), and isn’t close to weatherproof. It’s gorgeous though, and that’s a fact.
Be careful what you hope for.
@Kevin - Bay Area posted:Came across this speedster replica on BaT yesterday. The hard top got my attention. Would anyone be able to tell if this is a Glasspar top from Fiberfab?
I'm guessing, as with anything with our cars, nothing would be plug and play? Procuring this top would still requiring additional funds to get it to seal correctly?
https://bringatrailer.com/list...peedster-replica-27/
I posted a link to a metal hardtop in Quebec for $1000 Canadian, would need glass but all tops will need fitting etc etc. and it would have side windows but it may be for a Cabriolet ... ah well i tried.
Here's fiberglass one for kit car on eBay for $1500 in Calif. Maybe Plexicon/Plasticon?
Porsche 356 kit car Fiberglass Hard Top Unsure of model or years MAYBE PLEXICON | eBay
Same seller has another - different style (cheaper but rougher) -
Porsche 356 kit car Fiberglass Hard Top (Unsure of model or years) | eBay
There was a casting mold on eBay about a month ago too. Can't find it listed now.
I like the one without the goofy looking side quarter window.
The Plasticon top doesn't have the "goofy side quarter window".
The 1/4 "goofy" side window one gives better visibility and some had opening hinged windows.
Here's one that a local FL SOC member got from DrClock years ago. It's sitting on my Speedster. I have tried to buy it off him but no luck so far. It seemed like a decent fit on my CMC. I like the raised area above rear window which I'd use for a 3rd brake light or maybe an air vent.
@WOLFGANG posted:The 1/4 "goofy" side window one gives better visibility and some had opening hinged windows.
Here's one that a local FL SOC member got from DrClock years ago. It's sitting on my Speedster. I have tried to buy it off him but no luck so far. It seemed like a decent fit on my CMC. I like the raised area above rear window which I'd use for a 3rd brake light or maybe an air vent.
So would a plexiglass bubble top, but it would still look goofy! 
Proving there’s a lid for every pot, the quarter windows are what I liked about the Glaspar.
They’re also what leaked, so a fixed window back there is much, much better than a wing window, IMHO.
That would fit a Cabriolet, not a Speedster.
@Stan Galat posted:Proving there’s a lid for every pot, the quarter windows are what I liked about the Glaspar.
They’re also what leaked, so a fixed window back there is much, much better than a wing window, IMHO.
Was going to post something to this effect, but alas, Stan beat me to it.
I would want to get a Glaspar for my speedster, eventually (and if I decide to keep it)
Maybe you guys said it in a couple of different ways, but what I was always told is that since each replica speedster is hand made, they are to a certain extent, all just a little different, so getting a top for one means a custom build. There may be No such thing as plug and play. So I was told. That said, if you buy one already made of unknown pedigree, I think you would have to count on doing some cut/fit/glassing to get it right. And I think no matter what one does, a Speedster with a top on it is always going to look goofy. So I'm gonna say the pot that is a Speedster maybe does not have a lid. I guess canvas and side curtains is as far as I will ever need to go -- with the attendant blue tape and some absorbent towels near by, of course. .
hard tops and door locks??? and driving without getting wet? I keep going back to the phrase "it's better to think of a speedster as a motorcylce with 4 wheels and a frunk". I'd consider the top more of a 'sun-shade'. I've been on the receiving end of a sunburn driving a 300-ZX T-tops out from eastern PA to western NC when I was younger. Now I keep a hat and sunscreen in the 'Vert for the drive to the family farm.
The canvas top up and no side curtains is a fine sunshade -- works for me. Some folks think air conditioning is a nice thing to have, so a hard top and something like windows helps in that regard. The convertible D roadster, like what IM built, would be the way to go if that is a must for you. Roll up windows, and a snug top -- prefect.
Sorry but I have lived with an IM Roadster since 2009 and the top functions very well there may be a bit of a small rivlet of water in a deluge of a downpour and f it is not well fitted but not really an issue and with the window unzipped it makes it a very nice canopy where you can run A/C at your feet or chest and enjoy the drive. THis works especially nice with a subie engined AC compressor or a high powered ACooled. There does not seem to be enough IM Owners in the USA for you guys to experience. OTOH, it never rains in California does it 
BTW all hardtops made by IM had to be fitted once they were molded as IM needed to adjust for fit and finish and also required special fittings to allow removal of the softop to place the hard top on.
My hardtop had to be carefully fitted too. That was on an older IM Speedster. Everything was pretty much watertight even in heavy weather except that outer edge of the windshield frame. That would have required a substantial weather strip attachment that I didn't want to get into because I switched back and forth with the soft top and that had different fitting side curtains.
One thing I don't see mentioned is the very nice increase in headroom with the hardtop installed. Thanks to the late Carly Berry for finding two hardtops in Cali and getting them sent over via Greyhound Bus. Each hardtop cost us $165 and $150 to ship I think it was.
I remember that the hardtop ( don't know which product it really was ) fit pretty well right out of the box. I just had to extend the rear lip of the top about 1/2" under the rear window where it met the body of the car.
This is my old IM that I sold. Hard top and soft top. Both were water tight. I know. Why did I sell that car. Stupid.
That Roadster of yours sure was a nice one, Phil. I found one last pic of my Speedster with the hardtop on heading to Florida back in the day. It's amusing to see how small the car is sitting between two trucks. I had a habit of parking like that for security reasons. Those construction workers from out of town always had lot's of expensive equipment in the trucks and usually had one sentry patrolling the area all night long. Before hitting the sack I'd bring out a few pints for them and mention that there's no locks on the doors etc. and I was worried about that. They'd normally reply something like " don't worry mister, no one will even get to breath on it".
Dave, you are a clever dude, never said otherwise. That top looks like it fit perfectly. The nicest application I have seen. Also, good to hear from you again, as have missed you on the SOC in recent times, and especially down in Carlisle. That meeting, very convenient for me to attend, has been on the decline recently as far as Speedsters are concerned.
@El Frazoo posted:And I think no matter what one does, a Speedster with a top on it is always going to look goofy.
Eye of the beholder my man. I think a 356 w/hardtop looks amazing. So much so that the Karman Coupe aka “notchback” is my favorite variety of 356 coupe.
Nothing but a Cab with a factory hardtop welded on.
“ I like the raised area above rear window which I'd use for a 3rd brake light or maybe an air vent.”
Air vent, like god intended.
And Dean Jeffries copied on his customized Carrera. The “first Outlaw.”
Ah - here's the mold for a "plexicon" Speedster kit car on eBay. Located in Cummings, GA. $3500.
Porsche 356 SPEEDSTER kit car Hard Top Plasticon molds START YOUR OWN BUSINESS! | eBay
They also have a mold for louvered engine lids - $1200.
PORSCHE 356 Speedster MOLD Kit car louvered decklid CARRERA style fiberglass | eBay
1989, George G. Levin, CEO of Classic Motor Carriages (CMC) ... "and you too can complete this classic Speedster replica in only 40 hours."
The kit car Speedster top that defunct RustyTubs produced was untrimmed (assume longer tail section) so that it could be readily affixed to multiple vendor speedsters. They sold for $1200 several years ago - plus rubber gaskets/rear plexiglass, and crating/shipping. Plus prep/paint on your end.
I had contacted the guy myself and it was $1K but now off the market but who knows he might have thought he had a treasure.
OK, I'll give a little. The Conv D pictured above looks pretty cool with its top, but I will maintain that a Speedster is in its natural environment, " as God intended", with the top down and stored out of the way. IMHO.
You know, I've watched you guys get excited about hard tops in different threads over the years and I keep coming to the same conclusion- I really don't get what y'all are getting worked up about. A Speedster is supposed to be about (for me, anyway, and I thought for most of you) roaring around with the wind in our varying degrees of thinning hair, experiencing motoring in a somewhat more basic form, taking us back in time to an earlier and more exciting period in automotive history.
@El Frazoo said- "... but I will maintain that a Speedster is in its natural environment, " as God intended", with the top down and stored out of the way." and I agree with Kelly- I mean, who (in their right mind) intentionally goes out with their Speedster in crappy weather anyway- what would be the point? The Speedster has streamlined, beautifully simple lines- most of those tops look like an oversized hat just plopped on top. The only hardtop that actually looks good is the 1 on Oliver's Speedster (in England) which he crafted from a Beetle roof. And I have to ask- does he actually drive it in the rain? Although he did some really neat stuff with his Speedster, I got the impression it was more of a styling exercise, with him spending more time at shows trying to wow the automotive public instead of having fun hooning through the countryside. If that's what you want to do, fine, but is that really what the spirit of a Speedster is all about?
I don't know, guys- next you'll be back to debating where the best place is for cup holders...
And with that rant over (and out of my system) I'll climb down off my soap box now (which for short@ssed me is way higher and more dangerous than for you mostly taller gentlemen).
Well said, Al.
By no stretch of the imagination are these cars wet weather mobiles. If I want a hardtop, I'll drive whatever daily driver I have at the time - and enjoy power brakes, power steering, climate control, air bags, and no leaks.
These aren't real cars.
The heart wants what the heart wants, and it's a big tent.
Kevin's been around long enough to know the drill, he lives in a temperate climate, and he runs with nice enough cars that having something unique would be cool. If the man wants a hardtop, I'd like to see him get one, rather than sell and buy a... what? MX5? BRZ? Cayman? I understand getting tired of the drill, but really -- what else will compare?
That said, I tried a hardtop for all the wrong reasons and it was a disappointment. I also have a car with enough amenities that I have wondered why I went to all the work to add and integrate them. It's still a dune buggy with doors and always will be.
I do think perhaps guys who have never had an operational speedster might try to refrain from offering advice to guys who have had them for years regarding how to use them.
I agree with the "Speedster should be top-down" philosophy, but for long drives to gatherings (e.g., Charleston, SC to Carlisle, PA and back in May) encountering bad weather is almost a given. I reduced the leakage and improved ventilation in my Speedster considerably with the side windows I made, but a hardtop would have been even nicer until I got to my destination.
@dlearl476 posted:
I love this enough that I'm buying one.
Buy from where?
Now what would be really kool is a Speedster PRHT (ala Mazda MX-5 Miata PRHT).
A folding hard top that stores in the back of the car. Don't make the shell of car as a mold of the original - use more of a modernized vision of the classic body. There is currently unused space behind rear "seat area" and the faux engine firewall.
In FL and many other areas - for old folks, keeping cancer causing UV rays off your scalp/face/arms is more critical than keeping rain off. PRHT = Power Retractable Hard Top.
It would look like the 356 Karman Knotch Back version. Best of both worlds. Something New and different.
Stan said:
"I do think perhaps guys who have never had an operational speedster might try to refrain from offering advice to guys who have had them for years regarding how to use them."
That's a tad snarky there, Stan. This site is full of people who love to give advice on almost any matter, including yours truly.
@Bob: IM S6 posted:Stan said:
"I do think perhaps guys who have never had an operational speedster might try to refrain from offering advice to guys who have had them for years regarding how to use them."
That's a tad snarky there, Stan. This site is full of people who love to give advice on almost any matter, including yours truly.
That's alright, Bob, I laughed when I read it, and with what I said I expected someone would give me grief!
Stan and I have been back and forth before on various topics and he'd have to (and I think he knows he'd have to) give a lot more than that to insult me. As he says, it's a big tent, with room for all (well, most of us, except that Sema thing with the interior that looked like a cross between a Parisian bordello and a Kremlin bathroom- I still really like the wheels on that).
@Michael McKelvey posted:Buy from where?
Amazon. Everything comes from Amazon.
@ALB posted:Stan and I have been back and forth before on various topics and he'd have to (and I think he knows he'd have to) give a lot more than that to insult me.
Al’s a tradesman, familiar with jobsite give and take humor, a fact that binds us. He understood perfectly, I think.
@Stan Galat posted:I do think perhaps guys who have never had an operational speedster might try to refrain from offering advice to guys who have had them for years regarding how to use them.
Hey, I resemble that remark... I'm deeply offended, hurt, crushed even. Your snarkiness has killed my desire to ever work on the speedster again. You can only make me feel better by letting me drive yours someday in the Blue Ridge mountains..
and I love the 'easy' flag too.. it's so true.
