Turning a car into a convertible?

tara-kennedy_60a731588a7c8

hey everyone

how reasonable do you think it is to turn a four-door car into a convertible?

spec. a Fiat 128 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_128

or a Fiat Regata http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Regata

thanks alot

metropolis1

Bad idea.... That car does not have "body on frame" construction.... It instead features a unibody construction.... Problem with unibody construction is that if you cut the roof off it will seriously weaken the whole chassis.... Even if the door jambs stayed straight all you would need it to hit one big pot hole and the chassis would bend - most likely jambing the doors shut due to the floor bending.......

game-er

Problem with a four door vehicle is it is typically made for that structural "roll bar" where the door jamb between front and rear doors. The roof also is a structural piece of the car. Just cutting it out and fitting a canvas or vinyl top will weaken the integrity of the vehicle as a whole.

The previous posts were on the money as well. The engineering for the job would be costly. Without being done properly the vehicle would not pass inspection should you state have one.

Good luck though!

anonymous

You would have to do some major body work to do this. The only other big problem would be bracing your windshield because it will want to fall back after you cut the roof off. ant if you would want to put a retractable top on it you will have to modify your trunk area to fit it and it would have to be a totally custom.

eric-k

Insane amount of work, and you'd better be an engineer if you want it to be a decent job instead of a hack piece of crap that fails inspection.Better off selling your old one and just buying a convertible.

chris

get a chainsaw and the rest is history

joemong

not possible.