Optional hard top for 61 Cab

[Greg Bryan]

Having spoken of sturdiness and rigidity, or lack thereof when using a soft top, would anyone know of any stiffening kit in the market we can install for cabriolets?

Thanks.

Jay

Jay - John Wilhoit has a process that he uses for adding rigidity to open cars - it' done, I believe, in conjunction with replacing the longitudinals. I haven't seen it personally ...

[Adam Wright]

CW,

Just bought one actually

Jay

Jay, where did you find a hardtop, they are Unobtanium!

[Bill Oldham]

Adam,
Not unobtainable, I have one to sell. Black. Fits TUB TOGO, but I have not used it in at least 20 years, so I should sell it.
Bill

[Max Handley]

1959 Cabriolet delivered with hardtop only. Same color as body ,Ivory.

[Ron LaDow]

Soft-top 356s are flexi-fliers; here's the fix I used on the Speedster +:

The 'tudes were increased in vertical dimension to the height of the seat bolsters. There's a vertical 'gusset' on the front to feed the loads into the pre-A under-dash cross-member (and thereafter into the front T-bar structure). In the rear, there are horizontal 'gussets' that tie the load into the T-bar center spline location.
By test, it resulted in a major reduction in chassis flex. I do have photos of the test rig; it and the mod worked as designed.

[Jim Liberty]

I just finished an extensive restoration of my 1959 Meissen Blue A. There was no indication that the top had been anything but the body color.

.........................................................Jim.

[Adam Wright]

This hardtop only A Cab was a one owner car and was pretty original.

[Charlie White]

See the following website about "hardtops" for 356 Porsche Cabriolets,
both the history of the factory hardtops, and what other hardtops were
available at that time for 356 Porsches. This was initially written in 2007
and updated last in 2012.

Charlie White
Scottsdale, Arizona

http://derwhites356literature.com/356Po ... dtops.html

[Freddy Rabbat]

I fully agree with Charlie. I can't see a big rigidity difference between my cabrio with hardtop and my coupe.
The cabrio becomes a basket without the hardtop... wouldn't drive it hard with the soft top.
And I think we can say the same to the modern cabriolets when compared to their coupe brothers.

[Jay Aldeguer]

Thank you Greg. I wonder if John would be willing to share some insights on the process..

Having spoken of sturdiness and rigidity, or lack thereof when using a soft top, would anyone know of any stiffening kit in the market we can install for cabriolets?

Thanks.

Jay

Jay - John Wilhoit has a process that he uses for adding rigidity to open cars - it' done, I believe, in conjunction with replacing the longitudinals. I haven't seen it personally ...

[Richard Emerson]

Old thread but wondering whether to add a hart top to an A cabriolet. I, not sure how much I would use it as I have both a coupe and a speedster to drive. They really look nice on especially to me with a two tone color though but my premise on getting a cab was more relaxed open air driving. Any thoughts?

[Martin Benade]

Switching from a soft top to a hard top isn’t so easy you would want to do it very often. And it’s easy to scratch the car while installing either one.

[Adam Wright]

If anyone does decide to add a hardtop, I know a guy (me) who has a whole storage unit of them, can't give these things away!