I had some extra Tri 5 chevy convertible top metal frames and decided its time to do something with them.
Of course you can get reproduction top frames, but they are made in China using Chinese steel. The experience I have with imported steel has been with tri-5 body panels and I have found them to have less strength than original equipment, even though being the same gauge steel.
The highly respected parts vendor and restoration shop "East Coast Chevy", does not recommend the imported one piece full floor for tri-5 convertibles, they recommend the two piece floor pans made in USA, even though the imported is one piece, has all the braces, fits good, and its the same gauge steel.
All of the convertible top frames that I have messed with have had some kind of problem, quite often bent metal, and that's metal made in the USA over 60 years ago--the good stuff.
The conv top side rails get in a bind sometimes, but it never happened to me so I'm not sure what causes this. The rails are made of (.060) 16ga steel, and they are connected with 1/4" cast iron brackets, so if something has to give, its not going to be the cast iron.
You can see it in this picture, the rail on the right shows the damage from such a bind. The cast iron hinge is pulled away from the rail on the right which will make it sit higher in this photo, but lower as installed in the car.
Some guys might think its an adjustment issue.
I wanted to just cut the bad end off of a nice rail and weld on another good end piece. So I really gave this a lot of thought, as far as how to make the cut so as to then be able to get it all back together in the right place.
With the shape of the top side rails, its impossible to lay one on top of another to make a cut line. I thought about making jigs to help line everything up, but that would be after the fact, then the right thought came to me---the metal chop saw. Some wood was placed in the bed of the chop saw for the flat area to rest on, and some space left for the raised part to drop into, then slightly clamp it so its straight, and vice grips to hold it to the bed of the saw.
Then it was just a matter of cutting the two rails to be spliced at the same spot, so I called Sherwin Williams to see if they had a (stop) that would work, and this is what they sent. Its simple and it works fine, but next time I'll call SPI and see what they send.
A spacer on one of the cuts compensated for the saw blade.
That gave me a tight joint, with perfect alignment.
Of course you can get reproduction top frames, but they are made in China using Chinese steel. The experience I have with imported steel has been with tri-5 body panels and I have found them to have less strength than original equipment, even though being the same gauge steel.
The highly respected parts vendor and restoration shop "East Coast Chevy", does not recommend the imported one piece full floor for tri-5 convertibles, they recommend the two piece floor pans made in USA, even though the imported is one piece, has all the braces, fits good, and its the same gauge steel.
All of the convertible top frames that I have messed with have had some kind of problem, quite often bent metal, and that's metal made in the USA over 60 years ago--the good stuff.
The conv top side rails get in a bind sometimes, but it never happened to me so I'm not sure what causes this. The rails are made of (.060) 16ga steel, and they are connected with 1/4" cast iron brackets, so if something has to give, its not going to be the cast iron.
You can see it in this picture, the rail on the right shows the damage from such a bind. The cast iron hinge is pulled away from the rail on the right which will make it sit higher in this photo, but lower as installed in the car.
Some guys might think its an adjustment issue.
I wanted to just cut the bad end off of a nice rail and weld on another good end piece. So I really gave this a lot of thought, as far as how to make the cut so as to then be able to get it all back together in the right place.
With the shape of the top side rails, its impossible to lay one on top of another to make a cut line. I thought about making jigs to help line everything up, but that would be after the fact, then the right thought came to me---the metal chop saw. Some wood was placed in the bed of the chop saw for the flat area to rest on, and some space left for the raised part to drop into, then slightly clamp it so its straight, and vice grips to hold it to the bed of the saw.
Then it was just a matter of cutting the two rails to be spliced at the same spot, so I called Sherwin Williams to see if they had a (stop) that would work, and this is what they sent. Its simple and it works fine, but next time I'll call SPI and see what they send.
A spacer on one of the cuts compensated for the saw blade.
That gave me a tight joint, with perfect alignment.
