Has anyone made a hardtop out of fibreglass?, Here is my effort.

The plan is to lay fibreglass over the foam to get the shape



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Here's mine. Not se7eny but you get the idea.

The only problem with your method is you will not get a smooth gelcoat finish. You realy need to make a mould and take a copy from it. This is a big job and very time consuming. The only other way is to cover in filler and rub it to a finish. Again a very laborious job. Best of luck.

I've got one in the back of the garage as a possible project once I'm on the road. Got it for 99p last year!

Bit on the heavy side but I reckon it might be OK when I've done some fettling

This fella in America has.

Yeah that was my idea - Fibreglass over - Fill and sand - Then paint

Saves making a plug

Chippy has made a nice fibreglass hardtop.

Thats pretty tidy so far.

One issue you may have though... fibreglass does NOT light forming around tight bends. You really need to radius all those square edges you have, otherwise you will struggle to get strength and good finish.

It is possible to do it as you propose with fibreglass layed on top, you will need some surface tissue and a LOT of filler... it will end up weighing quite a bit though and unless its suitably rigid, the filler will crack eventually.

Keep at it though, looks nice. :-)

If i was to do one, i would get it as smooth as possible and cover it in black leatherette, and you will transform yourself
back into the 70's !
but it would also look like a soft top ?

Steve

I'm sorry but I think that doesn't look as good as a nice soft top. Can you perhaps put some curve into the roof and have the back at an angle down to the rear of the boot or even try to copy the shape of a soft top with it's high crossbar over your head.

One thing i did see is some people seem to b using plaster over foam to shape then painting then pva.

I could then get the curves and get it as smooth as possible.

Has anyone used plaster?

Heres one I made earlier, also rear view on my avatar. Cheers Ray

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This was the mock up in timber, I them glassed over this, filled and painted.

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[Edited on 1-12-11 by Chippy]

I have started again and am in the process of making a hartop out of ply and mdf


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I started, but havent finished yet...
Had problems deciding on the doors since they have to go up on the roof.

Hi
That looks really good, What did you use to form the door post?

Im really interested in your progress, i found some pics of a caterham hardtop


Caterham hardtop

Caterham hardtop 1

caterham hardtop 2

Looks pretty good

Had fibre glass one on my locost was like being a pea in a tin can at 70mph was glad to sell it for 99p last year.

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Originally posted by rich201283
Hi
That looks really good, What did you use to form the door post?

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Just been doing the sides this morning out of foam so i can get the thickness of the door to close against


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Sorry, couldn't resist

Coat on, door open etc etc

The hardtop has been put on hold, some problems occured with the doors so i got tired of it....

The current project is a rear decklid in fibreglass.

I too am planning on doing a hardtop, although not entirely sure of the best method of making the plug. I have done some pretty pictures on the PC of what I want, but now the real work begins. Rather than make a fairly flat roof ( as a soft top might look like ) I would like a slightly rounder shape to the whole thing, this poses a few problems however.

Has anyone got any advise on how to go about this, I have a few ideas, but just thought I would throw the question out there.

Cheers.

The easiest way is to make a mold on a car roof, a small hatchback usually has nice curvature. I tried that first, I put plastic protection on first to avoid damage to the roof. I wasnt satisfied with the sides so it got scrapped. The next one was built up from fibreboard:




The mold went ok but I guess its easier to build the plug on the car itself.

Sides and doors are the most difficult parts to make. I have the plasted roof standing in a corner, maybe i will continue some day.

Thanks for that, yes, one of my plans was to take a mold from an already existing roof shape. I am picking up an old Spitfire MK3 hardtop in the next few weeks to experiment with. I figured the doors would be a pain as well, as I would like these in F' glass to help minimise any leaks from flapping doors in the wind.

Like the fibreboard idea , I will see how my Spitty roof goes first as that saves me a lot of work, but failing that I will try your idea.

If I get anywhere with this, I will post up some pics .

Any News?

I'm looking into something like this myself!

Great little project!

Dan