Cabriolet Soft tops, etc.

[Steve Heinrichs]

Guys,

Maybe I am missing something but the thread as to this on the R Forum is, I think, a little off base.

The original poster has a coupe not a Cab. Seems obvious.

Anyway, as to soft tops---someone correct me but I think every Cab had a soft top even if it had a hardtop.

I'm at the Archiv this week and have collected the numbers of all the sort tops and hardtops.


Steve Heinrichs

[JTR70]

Thanks Steve!! Sounds like VIP access over there!

[Steve Heinrichs]

Thanks, Justin.

I could well be wrong on this. I am in the process of getting all the hardtop and soft top numbers for my database for the 4-cam cars (the info will not be in book) and did not see one where there was a hardtop and no soft top. I will try to look at more today.

Steve Heinrichs

[badsix]

Steve, I have a 58 cab. that had a hard top when I got it 40 years ago. anyway I found a soft top that a fellow had and priced right 150.00, now this was years ago. now are all cab soft tops the same ? I don't know what year mine is the number is 64020. I didn't see a number on my hard top.
Thanks Jay D.

[Steve Heinrichs]

Guys---

Well, for not the first time, I was wrong. Yep---there were somecabs with hardtops where the car had no soft top.

That said---at least as to 4-cam cabs---a rare event. I did not study all of the other cabs, of course but I would make a couple of observations:

When the hardtop cab first was out And before) and for sometime---the soft tops were frequently replaced.
I'm not sure why but, in the 'C' era, ot wasmuch less...and the soft top code number changed. Just maybe the supplier was changed.

I now have all the soft top and hardtop numbers (each was numbered) for all the 4-cam ones aqlthough this info will not be in book.

Jay---I missed your note before I left the Archiv today so I did not get a chance to search specifically (finding any specific number is tough). I'm sorry I missed the note.

Steve Heinrichs

[badsix]

no problem just wondering if all cab soft top are the same
thanks Jay D.

[Steve Heinrichs]

I dunno. I do know that earlier ones had 3501a as code and later ones had 880 code. Given how many seem to have been replaced, I'd guess they changed suppliers.

Steve Heinrichs

[S.J.Szabo]

I seem to remember discussing this somewhere else recently, but I was under the impression that cabs came with one or the other.

Part of the credibility of this would be the fact that each used different trim panels and the hardtop required rear latches that had to be removed to mount the soft top.

How would this have worked? Especially if one were to do a Factory Pick-up? Would the customer get a big box with one or the other top and its particular trims and latches? What if he didn't order a luggage rack?

I'm just sayin'

[Steve Heinrichs]

Beats moi. I thought there was no issue putting on a hardtop.

Still, the Reutter records and production records are clear that hardtops were delivered with some soft top cars.

Steve Heinrichs