Ok, part three top installation. Remember, I have no idea what I am doing. Strictly winging it. I could not find any info on this, so basically this is prior experience guiding me here. I know people love pics, so here they come!
As you may recall from a prior episode of "My Junker the Car", the front of the header bow was rusted out, so I welded new metal in. In my brilliance, I forgot to drill the holes for the fixing plate. So now I get to do that at an odd angle, and get metal filings in my car.
Here are all the holes drilled. Got lots of shiny new screws at Ace Hardware today. This car has consumed mass quantities.
I still had extra wire from the window winder adventures, but I ran out of ferrules, so got some of those as well. 1/16 ferrules. It is always gratifying to smash those on with a hammer.
Next, we thread the wire through the hole in the top header.
And work the wire through to the back. I did not use the string yet that the factory put in the top...I saved that just in case! I am thinking that I need to put a small hole in the top to feed the wire in to the attachment screw. Anybody tell me different please?
Let's attach the front of the top. Always start in the middle! And don't trim anything until you are done!
And here is for the night. Really pretty close. Need to pull the corners in a bit more, but I like it. And here is the best advice you will ever get when putting on a top...get so far, look at it, and walk away until tomorrow. It always looks better the next day. Don't stress it!
The back looks pretty good. Some of the wrinkles will come out when I put on the side brackets. I am pretty sure that these cars did not have drumheads for tops when they were new.
Tomorrow...you guessed it...more top work!
And if I have made a bunch of mistakes on this top...please be gentle when you point them out. I am trying!
BTW...doesn't the Amphicar look huge next to the Spider? Believe it or not, the wheelbase on the Amphicar is almost a foot shorter.