Hey I was eating supper last night and came up with a weird idea. Have any of you ever thought of carbon fiber T-Tops. They would be lighter than stock and you could still take them out, unlike welding in a thin plate. Just and idea but I thought it would be pretty cool. Hell you could make fiberglass ones as well.

I would love plexiglass it those t-tops as well as the back side 1/4windows.

i think i've heard of someone doing something like that... Cant remember, think maybe someone on this board did something like it though. :confused:

but would carbonfiber just make us have even more chasis flex? ive heard we already have more than a stock classic.....

Originally posted by hooligan NX2000
i think i've heard of someone doing something like that... Cant remember, think maybe someone on this board did something like it though. :confused:

You may be thinking of RallyRobin, he welded a solid roof onto his NX2000 to make a hardtop NX.

Mine on the other hand, came from the factory that way ;)

Originally posted by 92nx2k
but would carbonfiber just make us have even more chasis flex? ive heard we already have more than a stock classic.....

It might.

Of course any hatchback will have more chassis flex than a car with a trunk. Look at the large, unbraced area of a hatch. Flexy.

A 1/2 cage (or a full cage of course) or even a rear stb helps reduce flex, at the expense of interior room.

wouldnt a thicker rear swaybar do more than an stb? i mean i know the fron stb's in our cars are essentially worthless and disposable, unless u just like the way they look...

yeah I didn't think about the flexing. I guess the car could possibly flex enough to shatter the cf. I drag my car and was thinking of weight reduction for that reason.

Originally posted by spnx


You may be thinking of RallyRobin, he welded a solid roof onto his NX2000 to make a hardtop NX.

Mine on the other hand, came from the factory that way ;)

I actually used rivets. I didn't want to weld because I'm pretty sure that would lead to warping from the high heat.

I removed the glass from each t-top assembly (a real PITA) and then bolted the fibreglass pieces to the shell - slight overlap with the sheet metal - hammered/rivetted into shape and then finished with as little bondo as I could manage. The truth is it doesn't look real pretty standing still - but it's hardly noticeable at wheel-lifting speed :D :

http://www.everestgeodetics.com/rally/fleguelSBB.jpg

I wouldn't use plexi - when it breaks it forms many sharp knife-like shards - it really shouldn't be used for automotive applications. Lexan is much safer and I'm pretty sure would be just as stiff as glass but weigh less.

The problem is the shape of the t-tops - they are curve-formed with no frames - so the replacement material you use has to have the same shape. I don't think that anything that you can form to shape with cloth/resin (fibreglass etc) will be as stiff.

Carbon fibre baked to shape and sandwiched with aluminum honeycomb? Hello, Williams, Jaguar, Swift, Lola, Panoz, (whoever's cheapest), I'd like to mortgage my house.

Robin

Originally posted by rallyrobin


I actually used rivets. I didn't want to weld because I'm pretty sure that would lead to warping from the high heat.



Damn. I knew that. Brain fart.

Cool pic BTW

James

Do any of you know how much it would cost to have done?

The solution I'm working on for my other shell is a replacement roof from the wrecking yard - I want to cut one off of an NX1600/2000 and weld it at the pillars.

I have no idea how much a bodyshop would charge - it would probably help if you located the replacement roof first.

Robin