Printable View
Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 12, 2006, 6:02pm
I took the hard top off (for the final time ) and here's what I discovered I have for the soft-top mount:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/505/51206003a5rj.jpg
What am I supposed to do now? Is this rail something I can get from Best-top or such, by chance?
Anyone with any experience in this, I'm all ears!
Thanks....
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by socal715 on May 12, 2006, 6:26pm
Best top wont have anything for it. Thats manufact. into the frame. You could take c-channel from screen door or window frame or something and bolt it up... or just look for a new frame in Silverton Oregon? lol
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 12, 2006, 6:31pm
Bestop will surely have the channel that I could get that would mount their tops. Question is, would it work with the rope-in-the-canvas M715 top? Somehow, I doubt it....
If you guys buy that truck, what are you going to let me have the windshield for?
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by socal715 on May 12, 2006, 6:37pm
you can have the windshield i guess... im not the one buying it....... bestop sends out the rails too? i didnt know that.
this is what i was thinking of.....
http://www.homeproductsnmore.com/ros...nelTopView.jpg
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 12, 2006, 6:55pm
Bestop's rail is just an open rectangular channel though. Maybe 1/8" wide by 3/8 to 1/2" deep. Won't work. Unless they have a different type as well.....
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by socal715 on May 12, 2006, 6:58pm
Call them. They may have different sizes.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by fisherman on May 12, 2006, 8:20pm
Tim if you come up with just the channel I can weld it on for you. Seems to me everything I've welded on the truck looks way better than any factory weld. I believe they used these trucks as practice for novice welders. Fisherman
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by k8icu on May 12, 2006, 8:25pm
Just look around for a new windshield or a new windshield frame. Keep your eye on e-bay etc. Call AB Lin, or Vintage PW or even Saturn and see if you can get one. Maybe if your lucky you'll find a nice NOS one...:)
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by 503m715 on May 12, 2006, 9:02pm
a.b. has nos ws frames with glass for $275 but he wont ship them this far. I tried to get him to ship me one. I sent you a pm I might have one you can use.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 12, 2006, 10:10pm
I'll just check for some extruded channel at the local RV store. Perhaps one of you gentlemen would be kind enough to break out your calipers and give me some dimensions of the channel?
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by elwenil on May 13, 2006, 7:15am
Post something up in the wanted section. I'm sure someone has a junk windshield frame laying around that they could knock the channel off and send it to you. I'd do it, but I gave my old frame to Warwick.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by beast on May 13, 2006, 9:04am
I did some measuring and the best top channel is out. Way too small. But you could use a piece of 5/8" tubing with an .083" wall which would leave you .459" inner dia. You would then need to cut the slot into it. You could use a cut off wheel or something similar to make the cut. Then weld it back on to the windshield frame. If you can't find tubing local to you, you can check out www.chassisshop.com on thier tubing page it has it listed. They can ship tubing anywhere. They are the shop next to mine if you need me to get you anything.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 13, 2006, 9:53am
Thanks! I'm going to check an RV shop first. Seems they attach awnings and such to the sides of campers pretty much the same way. It's just a matter of whether they will have something that will fit. Hopefully Socal will get me some measurements of his channel.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by k8icu on May 13, 2006, 9:06pm
Tim....sigh....take the advise given above and get a new windshield. It is not going to be worth the hasle of trying to remake the channel and besides your molding on the glass doesn't look to good. I bet if you take a close look at your windshield you'll find other problems that a new windshield will fix.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 13, 2006, 11:51pm
Molding isn't bad. Just has a lot of overspray on it. Besides, I'm way too cheap, dude.....
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by teking on May 14, 2006, 7:23am
Looks to me like you need a new frame. Not only is the soft top rail missing but you have holes drilled all along the top of the frame.
What is the intent here? If it is restoration ... you need a new frame. If you just want a soft top then you could just bolt a bikini top to it. In the holes already provided.
if it was me .... I'd get a new frame.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 14, 2006, 9:20am
Holes drilled would fall under the top material, with the possible exception of the holes on the very ends.
Not a restoration, just cleaning it up. And a soft top and bikini top are not the same!
If a new frame were readily available, I'd go for it. But with the weight of that sucker, and the glass to contend with (either ship it and hope it doesn't break, or swap this glass in and hope it doesn't break; then end up breaking it and having to get new glass.....), I think I'll just do a little work on this one!
Gentlemen..... Have ye really so little faith in the Tool Man?!?!
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by brute4c on May 14, 2006, 2:46pm
OK...maybe this is too late or too much info...whatever...
The stock top channel is a metal U with the opening at the bottom with a narrower opening in the U than the interior size of the U. To get the smaller opening, small approx. 45 degree angle "flaps" are bent on the channel.
Heres the measures:
The top of the channel, or bottom of the U, is 19/32nds inch wide on the outside...this is how far the channel sticks out from the windshield frame.
The height of the channel, the side of the U, is 17/32nds inch on the outside.
On the inside of the U, in either direction, it is 7/16ths inch NOT COUNTING the "flaps.
The opening at the bottom of the channel, the top of the U, is 3/16ths inch.
The roughly 45 degree flaps start at 11/32nds inch down the sides, 3/16ths from the end of the 17/32nds sides.
That should answer the question as to size...except the length across the truck, which is 50 inches.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 14, 2006, 11:07pm
Wow! Thanks, Jon.
I took a look at Socal's last Thursday when we met for dinner, though I'd have looked harder had I known I'd need one! So I have a pretty good idea of what you're describing. Thanks!
Essentially all I need to find is a 50" long piece of square awning mounting channel or such with rougly 7/16" to 1/2" interior space and about a 3/16" opening for the canvas to exit. Bueno!
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by elwenil on May 15, 2006, 7:57am
From my experience with a similar situation of a bootyfab hard top butchering my windshield frame: Mine was terribly rusty with a fogged windshield and a totally dry rotted gasket. $100 and a nice ride to Barry's got me a nice, perfect, used frame wedged in the backseat of my car, $114 got me a brand new piece of glass cut at the local shop, and $18 got me a new gasket from JC Whipme. It looks a little thinner than the factory one, but it works perfect and gives it a nice new look.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 15, 2006, 8:32am
My windshield, despite how it may look in the picture, is quite sound. The drilled holes are above where the channel goes, so those will be covered by the canvas. No rust anywhere. Perfect glass. Just needs 1) green paint and 2) that bloody channel. Okay and 3) I could rub the overspray off my windshield gasket!
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by bluesman2a on May 15, 2006, 11:41am
Just take an appropriate length of .5" or .25" square tube (16 ga should be enough), take it to a machine shop and have them mill out an appropriate sized slot down the entire length. If you're steady you could do it with a grinder, but machining would look better. Don't forget to round the corners and deburr it or you'll be cutting your top on it.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 15, 2006, 11:44am
I'll make that Plan B. Thanks, blues.....
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 15, 2006, 11:43pm
It's a labor of love, Gentlemen! At least the sanding and prep-work is labor! I'll love it later....
I'm honestly baffled by the apparent general consensus that I should replace my windshield simply because the channel has been removed. I just don't get it! What's the hassle? Where's the pain?! Just find a new piece of channel, tack it in position and I'm good to go. There's nothing otherwise wrong with the windshield.
And I sure lucked out in the rust department too! I vacuumed all the dirt and sundries from the bottom of the door interiors and not a speck of rust to be found. Rockers look great. Anywhere I've looked, there's nothing a few swipes with a wire brush won't take care of.
I found a boatload of mouse nesting fluff in behind the door post, just on the driver's side. Now that's a job getting at that. Allen wrench and a vacuum cleaner probably didn't even get it all.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by oilcan on May 16, 2006, 2:32am
Heck Tim, if there's a chance you can fix what you have, give it the ole' college try. The most you'll be out is the time and a few bucks. And it'll save a windshield frame for someone who REALLY needs it. Those things don't grow on trees, ya' know...
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by elwenil on May 16, 2006, 7:06am
I would at least make sure you have another frame somewhere close to you to take good measurements of. Placement will be critical to the fit of the top.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by k8icu on May 16, 2006, 9:38pm
I guess in my 20 years of futzing with MVs I have found that what looks to be simple generally isn't. Doesn't that channel curve on the ends like a M38a1's?" Like a frown?
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 16, 2006, 9:46pm
Dunno. No one's sent me a picture yet!
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by socal715 on May 16, 2006, 10:11pm
It's straight.. no bend.. lemme upload pics for you Tim
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by brute4c on May 17, 2006, 9:00am
I can take a pic or 2 tonight if no one else has...
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by elwenil on May 17, 2006, 9:09am
Actually in the pic above, the little dryrot crack running along the gasket is in the "hinge" for the lock that holds the glass in tight. If this get's bad enough, about the only thing that holds the glass in is the fact that the gasket has gotten hard. It will probably leak, and if not al the way into the interior, it will lwak on the outside so that water sets in the gasket and rusts out the lip that the gasket goes over on the frame. I would at least pop out the glass and replace the gasket when you repaint to inspect for rust and paint this problem area.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by teking on May 17, 2006, 9:23am
Quote: <TABLE class=bordercolor cellSpacing=1 width="90%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%"><TABLE class=quote cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="100%">I would at least pop out the glass and replace the gasket when you repaint to inspect for rust and paint this problem area.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The very reason I removed my glass when I repainted my frame.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by amphi on May 17, 2006, 10:04am
Little fuzzy but maybe this helps.
http://landru.myhome.net/sivart/soft3.jpg
http://landru.myhome.net/sivart/soft2.jpg
http://landru.myhome.net/sivart/soft1.jpg
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by socal715 on May 17, 2006, 10:31am
I emailed you some useless pics Tim.. Amphi's are better... my top was on when i took the pics.. so i just peeled it back a little.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by brute4c on May 17, 2006, 11:09am
I guess the other thing you might need to know is the height from a fixed reference point...thinking about the windshield wiper motor mounts.
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by brute4c on May 17, 2006, 11:09am
...and Nice Pics Amphi!!
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by amphi on May 17, 2006, 12:03pm
Thanks brute!!!
Camera wanted to focus on the background -- oh well. There is some white paint build-up on the front edge making it look like a different shape. The channel opening is the same for front and back
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by 40grit on May 18, 2006, 8:48am
TimDToolman,
I can look around, if I find some 1/2' square tubing at Homedepot or such, I can get the machinists at work to mill the groove then you just drill a bunch of holes thru the windshield frame and spot weld the tube to the front of the frame...maybe even run a bead across the top to keep water from getting behind it and letting rust pry it off again...
Re: Soft-top mount on windshield
Post by binfordm715 on May 20, 2006, 11:47am
Thanks, gritty! I'll let you know if I need to go that route....