Newbie.....Hardtop removal.

[Classic_Marc]

Hi, I've just bought a Tahiti blue '75 stag with a friend as a project. We are finding very difficult to remove the hardtop.

The car has been sat in his aunts garage for 5 years.

We have released the two front clips and the rear. The problem lies with two behind the seats. They are welded stiff. We manged to snap one of the handles in the process. With hardly any force. So we are now worried about trying to open the other side. We drenched the mechanism with wd40. But still no luck or movement.

Can somebody help with some information.

Thanks in advance

[jleyton]

Hi Marc and welcome to the forum,

That's a tough one ! I've never heard of this before but can quite understand it happening.

The plate or chrome horseshoe on the body that the hardtop catches fit into can be removed and I guess if you undo these then the hardtop could lift up complete with those fixing brackets.

To access those horseshoes with the hardtop in place, you'll need to remove the rear cubbies. Even then, with the folded soft top in place, it isn't going to be easy to access the nuts that retain the horseshoe but I'd have though it's your best bet. There are two nuts per side and they're 7/16" AF.

Good luck.

Cheers

Julian

[Classic_Marc]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

We managed to get it off the afternoon buy undoing the nuts under the horseshoe. The handles had completely siezed!! Pulled up the hood to find out that it is pretty much brand new.

Polished the rear bumper and started to take the rear drum and shoes apart. As the piston is sticking. Can't wait to get it mot'd and on the road.

Still along way to go with the project though!

Cheers

[jleyton]

Glad to hear it worked for you. Feel free to ask anything you need on the forum. There's several people on here with far more experience than me and you'll usually get an answer to any questions (Sometimes you'll get two conflicting answers )

You'll have to post some pics on here of your car

Good luck with the project.

Cheers

Julian

[martin]

Hi Mark, there's no need to strip out the rear brakes to remove a wheel cylinder, push off the E clip on the back, remove the pipe and pull it straight out, the shoes won't move. Martin.