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@MangoSmoothie.ca  your skills are breathtaking.  Wow!  Where do you find the time?

On the headliner fromt-  the classic perforated vinyl is always nice... and would be the cherry on the cake of your amazing custom top.  

  I also recently saw an MGB where the owner had chosen to use rubber/ truck liner pain and painted the inside in a white/ very light off white color, in lieu of re-doing the vinyl headliner. He sprayed it with mat finish, almost perfectly smooth,  added a little texture and depth and he claimed reduced the echo/ noise and was bullet proof.  It looked awesome IMHO.

588C220A-B50B-49B2-AB78-DC1EAE4F08E6

Here is a sample of a bed liner paint company that offers “smooth finish” mat paint in multiple colors, off the shelve.  

 https://www.durabakcompany.com...aint-for-your-truck/

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Last edited by Lfepardo

Gentlemen,

I know we're all just making conversation, but... IMHO, the chasm between the hardtops we are talking about, and the one Paul (Mango) is actually doing here is wide and deep. I had a Glaspar hardtop built for my 2002 JPS like the one in LFEPARDO (Luis') picture (which incidentally doe not have a spray on headliner). Until now, the Glaspar was the coolest commercially available fiberglass top, and it was beautiful.

It was also about 1/10 as beautiful as the top that Paul is building.

I'm all in favor of thread-drift, but I'm in awe of this thing we're watching unfold in front of us. I know it was Ollie who built the original (in what seemed to be about a week), but Paul's top is stupid-cool. 

Look at the tops you are linking. They are cool, for sure. But then look at Paul's. Then look at the other tops, then look at Paul's. Sadly, ours are not Paul's.

Long live the Mango Smoothie. 

Last edited by Stan Galat

ha ha - you guys are giving me too much credit (but thank you).  I'm just a dood who likes to tinker.

as for an update - i planned to do some photoshopping to show what i wanted, but i'll explain s it's faster to type than to do the photo editing.

the transition between the piece i added (where the weld is) goes * slightly* down at an angle (like a subtle inverted peak).  i fought this during the welding and i decided i wasn't happy with it. (you see it?)

so, i made two 9" long slices with a thin cutoff disc and then opened up the middle (where the transition weld is) even more (another pass with the cutoff disc).  then brought out the metal bumping hammer and bumped until the whole curve was smooth.

you guys get that run-on? minor adjustments, but something that stuck out ever time i looked at it.

and i did *another* round of trimming on the back. and welded the two base plates together. 

i am ready to weld the top to the base plate.  it's currently all waiting for me (adjusted, etc).  i just need time.  i should have it welded up and trimmed by the weekend.

 

and @Chris Kleber, KitMan Motors

that is a sweet coupe shell you are selling! that would be fun to build with a tube frame 2.5T subi setup!

I think I see what you're doing here. You're making rain gutters with subtle "wings" to channel any water up and away from the usual gap where the windshield curves, aren't you?

But it can't look tacked on (even though it literally is!), so you form it as much and as carefully as possible to get the lines that a Speedster should have. 

Naw, man. Nobody's giving you "too much credit."

@MangoSmoothie.ca. Paul, I imagine you  have looked at the long male tenax male studs... they are 10.7mm long. ( vs the standard 5mm).   Intended for double thick applications.  I was on a friends boat recently and stubbed my toe on one of these 1cm tall studs. 

http://www.eagleday.com/tenax-...w-peg-high-head.html

or better yet, so you dont have to change your male studs on the car body... the thick application female buttons, which can be used on metal/ hard materia up to 8mm thick.

http://eagleday.com/tenax-top-...-extended-shank.html

Last edited by Lfepardo

Paul, no trouble at all.  I have all this stuff handy...

For a “bolt down” resource, you may want to look at some the off the shelf parts for ideas-  MGB and Austin have  hardware available.  I have been helping my father refurbish his ‘59 MG hard top... moss motors.com has a great catalog for MG, Austin and MGB... great part/ assembly ideas with diagrams to bold down your hard top to the car.. and a few local Vancouver/Langley shops are authorized distributors of their parts ( http://www.bestbritishcarautoparts.com/  , and  Octagon )

... I personally drive up to Langley to best British Parts across the border to save on shipping and the $$ exchange ;-)   Plus it gave me an excuse to drive the speedster a few times from Seattle to a Vancouver this summer/fall.

attahced is a link with some diagrams.  The locator brackets that bolt the top to the car I imagine is something with your skills you can fab.

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/...actory-type-mgb.html

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/...dget-iii-1500cc.html

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/...tops-100-6-3000.html

Hope this helps... your work is amazing!

Last edited by Lfepardo

My VS top uses rubber latches pictured below.   3 of them ( in addition to the two windshield metal latches From VS, and the windshield center post U clip).   One attached to each door post, and one centered in the back,  which I beefed up with a metal plate behind the fiber glass years back- on the car body side- the back seat upper lip... to prevent the fiberglass from cracking, 

703B4F48-C680-49ED-9031-A6A98D794942

An old pic.. you can see the location of two of the three rubber black latches:

38BFDDDF-3B3F-4EDE-B1C8-9521DD167DC7

But I have thought about replacing them with sturdier metal ones after working on my fathers MG... but after 5 years of problem free hard top driving I’m not quite convinced I need another project..

7EB5E00A-DCCB-4E58-8032-0A8050AC25F3

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Last edited by Lfepardo

Along with Moss Motors, I have also used Scarborough Faire Parts in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.  They don’t have a decent web site so just call or email Cecelia at:

Phone: 1-401-724-4200
email: info@mgaparts.com

And tell her what you want.  They have a lot of high quality parts for MG and Austin Healey with small ads in the usual British car magazines.  I used them when I was restoring our Austin Healey 3000. 

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