I need the streangthen up my car before I go cutting most of the roof off so I'm going to make my own convertable subframe braces. Can anyone tell me were they are under the car and how far forward and back they go and thr rough dimentions of them. I know there along the bottom of the rocker but are they like right on the edge of the under side of the Z kit or do they have to come off to remove the Z kit? I just want to get these as close to the factory position that I can.
I did a search already and found out there held on by about a hundred rivets and I dont want to go un drilling all of them so thats why I decided to make my own. And is there dimples in the floor were the rivets go to gice me a bit of a guide line? Or is the convertable a dealer thing (I remeber reading somwere the dealer made them convertable not the factory.)
Pics would be a big help to
but I'm not going to hold my breath, lol
Any and all comments welcom, thanks in advance.
wish i hadn't fried my digital camera lol if i get home before dark tomorrow i'll take a peek and try to help u out
<img src="http://www.geocities.com/fudd_22602/elmer-shoot.gif"> Old school Js rock
DONT DO IT . is my best advice ...
sorry im new here but your post scared the crap out of me and needed to
reply
Why dont you do it.
#1 its a unibody . Picture a arch .. if you remove the middle block, say goodbie to the rest
#2 no matter how hard/much you strengthin the frame . you will never get a stiff body
#3 if you crash that car ... chances are ... your dead.
#4 I have drivin a 90 z24 coupe and a 90 z24 soft top .. when you hit bumps .. you can feel flex through out the body
#5 when you go to hop out of your car after doing all that work. go to close the door to discover that it wont because the frame is to stressed. You will be pissed
#6 If the frame ever does give or flex... the body shop wont touch you for trying to get it straight EVER!
You might think im full of crap. But as we all know Grand -Am's dont come in soft top right ?
Well ..I did the same project you are about to take on.. and after i cashed mine ... i cryed as the tow truck took it away to be crushed
I'll see if I can't borrow my friends camera and take a few pics of the underside of my z conv for ya. Another thing I'll do is to see if that brace has a part # in a gm catalog. I think it could be done, what are you going to do for a top? or is it gonna be permanently topless? it would be cool as a two-seater conv with a rollbar. just a thought
www.parts.com
has all the parts listed for the frame including double frame support from the side bars to the supports under the rear seats, rear seats to the trunk rails, trunk rails to the reinforcment all behind the upper rear seat, then back down to the trunk and through out the trunk
um..dont want to rain on your parade or anything, but you realize if you do this, and your insurance company finds out, you wont be covered....
for the reasons above, its a uni-body, and no matter how much bracing you do, they will not insure the car. Unless you strip it down completely, get all welds inspected and certified,..maybe youll have a chance. I know i did the rear bucket conversion in my car and when my insurance company found out, it was quite the hassle, even tho i could prove the rear seats were held in better than stock...
good luck with the project and post progress pics if you do decide to do it.
My bird has new paint, the body looks good and now under the hood i go. Did i hear someone say bore to a 3.4?
First off, I wasnt very clear before with what I was doing....I'm making my car into a T top, but since the only bracing in the roof is on the sides were I'll be cuting I want to streangthen the bottom end. I have my welder coming over to look it over and plan it out soon, he builds all our cages for our race cars so he knows what hes' doing. I was just curious how they id it stock, and I know the verts flex alot so I'm doing more than they did the stop that as much as I can. I'm also looking into bracing the one piece of roof I'll have left between the two pieces of glass for the top. I'm also looking into removing the window frame from the door, but I dont know how I would get the window to seal after that, any ideas there?
thanks for all the help so far.
Also theres susposed to be a special insurance company opening in my area soon for people who solo, auto-X rally and have lots of mods done to there car, and there not that expensive either.
Raden C- What all did you do for bracing on your GA and did you have all the problems you listed above with the doors not aligning etc...?
if you want to pull off the window surround, take a look at the way they do the late 80's early 90's t's on a camaro, it's funny actually, after all the things i've pulled off my bird, i'm starting to see parts of my ex's camaro all over it lol, except interior... she had an auto i have a stick mwuahahahahaha.... (and only two less cylinders for a car thats probly more than 1000 lbs lighter lol) she had rwd though
grr anyway, like i said, check out some camaro's and firebirds/trans ams for ideas on the t-top deal, maybe you can even have the whole setup chopped off somewhere and mod it to your car? just an idea... L8r
"I live my life a quarter mile at a time..." "for those ten seconds or less I'm free"
first .. we removed the hallow rocker panels and replaced the with solid ones.
Welded tubular steel across from rocker to rocker and installed a roll bar.
Sadly this did not support the frame properly as i neglected the rear seat and trunk area.
if you are going T-tops you should be ok but remeber .. with the t-tops you will be cutting
in to the "A" pillars ( ONES THE RUN FROM BELOW THE WINSHEILD UP, AND, OVER THE DOORS, AND DOWN TO THE REAR GLASS) those ones play an importand roll in structure integrity of your car . Again .. cutting in to the "A" pillar will reduce your frame strengh. The "A" pillar plays an importand roll in supporting the weight on the arch . If you have the glass installed for the t-tops and there is any flex in the frame ... your glass will shatter down on top of you . If I could upload pictures I could explain this better. I.m me and ill give you my m.s.n name so i can go in to this with way more detail.
ummm. I dont think we have that on this forum but my e mail is mr_efficiency@hotmail.com (the one in my reg is my old one.) Add me to your msn and we can talk some time
To streangthen the roof I want to get a piece of bar to go on the underside of the roof between the quarter window pillar at the the rear door pillar and the put another bar acrossed the top of teh windshield and conetct the two with a bar going down the middle of the roof on the under side of the roof running front to back.......I hope that all made sence, but I hope that will kinda substitute for the missing parts above the door, and plus the convertable bracing just to be sure. Hows the trunk bracing go, I've never heard of or seen that before.
thanks
Put a full cage in it, and do braces in your trunk, behind your rear seats, and cross braces under the car. And remember, a brace with an |/| design has more strength than one with simply | |.
Yeah I was planning on putting an X under the car as well as the front to back braces at the sides, I dont really want a full cage though.
Does anyone know any cars that come factory in T-top that has similar roof dimentions to our cars, I think it might be easier to get the proper glass from another car and modify the edge of it to fit the roof line and door (hard ti explain what it'll look like when I'm done).
My friend has a 90 (I think) Nissan Pulsar with a T top that shes gutting, so I'll ask her about the tops if there close to the same dimentions.
So anyone know a good site to find specs/dimentions of cars or a car with a t top that is simmilar to ours?
thanks
I can probably get some good pictures of the underside of the car before our verts goes off to the yard. Send me another message on IM and I'll see what I can do...
95 Cobra
Check out my site
*points upward to car with similar dimensions of roof* .... like i said camaro, ect, not extact, but there would be a decent ideal to biuld on there, am i right?
"I live my life a quarter mile at a time..." "for those ten seconds or less I'm free"
