I picked up a 47 Mercury Coupe and I'm leaning towards building a carson top custom with it. I'm looking for some information about the extra bracing in the convertibles vs the coupes and pictures from anybody who has done this before. Thanks for any help, Jeff
The bracing is in the sills, door posts, and especially the cowl area.It varies from car to car, best idea would be to examine a 47 Merc convertible, or make the Carson top permanent. Also, the frame is usually stiffened with an X member, or by boxing.
About 20 years ago-Joe Kress cut the roof off a '46 Ford business coupe and installed a working convertible top from a '60's donor. The project was published in 'American Rodder' magazine and showed the process he used including bracing the body as I recall. The project turned out real nice. Maybe someone on here has the article and can post it.
Well, you are one step ahead in that all Fords/Mercs of that era are "X" member frames, though I read somewhere that the Convertible frames had slightly thicker frame material. Not sure that is true, but was claimed. I do not think that, even if true, matters as much as other considerations. As pointed out above the cowl mounting, front and rear door pillars and the rocker panels (full length) need to be substantially reinforced. The door lock pillar also needs some sideways reinforcement as well as the fore/aft tie to the rockers. Some of the convertible conversions of the '80s opened the rockers and pillars and inserted square and rectangular tubing, all welded together, of course, to add the necessary structure to those parts. The reinforcement should be done with the top still in place and AFTER aligning the pillars and doors by the methods applied to the original body style. i.e., adjustments and/or body mount shims, etc. Those 'convertibles' made from coupes and sedans that I have observed mostly seem to miss the boat in the treatment of the windshield pillar/upper bow area. If you do this, you might want to pay attention to that area on the gennie ragtops and duplicate the w/s pillar upper sections. It's those details that make a difference in the finished product. Sometimes, with a little luck, you can find an affordable convertible body with the lower parts severely rusted from which to harvest the w/s pillars and upper door and quarter panel sheet metal to assist in the transformation.
Thanks for the info guys! I'm hoping someone with a original convertible can add some pictures of the bracing mentioned above. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
We'll I picked up the front half of a rusty convertible and have started the conversion. I didn't get the back half of the car but did get the door post brackets and the cowl with its brackets. I'm going to carson top it so the lack of the convertible catwalk area didn't concern me Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
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