possible GB, Carbon fiber targa top Options

[kid914]

Hi members

I just made a contact to possibly make a run of ( Carbon fiber targa tops) yes the REAL THING not a wrap. A 914 top is being source to make the tooling.
I understand I have no prices yet...but as soon as a donor top is found. I will be able to get an estimate based on the number of members interested.
I will post pictures of a 911 targa top to give you an idea of the finished product.

Who might be interested? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

[toddc68]

Trying to answer a few questions, some from the thread, some private.

On the 911 top, the carbon, the laminate schedule is a mix of 6k, 12k and uni in key areas. All farics from Toray.
The resin system is a high temp epoxy with a TG of 300f.
The process is resin infusion. This gives us near autoclave results without the overhead and expense. We do have autoclave access through one of our network partners and use prepreg on some of our contract production. For the targa tops, it's simply un-necessary. We gain a great deal of rigidity and light weight with the infusion process.
After trim and bond, the tops are clearcoated with a PPG high solids clear or painted body color based on customer request.

The process for the 914 top would most likely be the same.

In the 911 top, we have incorporated metal backing plates at all of the guide pin locations that allow the same range of adjustment as the factory hard top. They are also designed to accept our replica guide pins or stock hardware. We inststall rivnuts for attachment of the seals. The seals themselves have a range of adjustment.

The stock 911 fiberglass hardtop from '75 weighs in around 25.5 lbs. Our carbon hard top comes in at 11. These weights are exclusive of hardware and seals.


Pricing? this has been a key question for most. It is still TBD based on potential market size and tooling cost.
To give you a quick idea of the tooling cost for the 911 top, it was north of $20k for the molds, bonding fixtures and related misc hardware.

This cost was amortized over the anticipated production run.

Some folks have hinted at the price they would "like to" buy one at, but this is premature.

The $400 and $500 numbers were thrown out there but realistically, this is the bare cost of materials on the 911 top and does not account for labour or overhead let along recoup of tooling investment.

What would final cost on a 914 top be? Time will tell. A lot depends on potential volume, intricacies of the top and it's mounting hardware and variations between early and late and whether or not any of the tooling is interchangeable between the two.
At this point, we're still in the discovery phase.

For some more pics and info on the company and some of the bits we produce, you can find us on FB at helion composites, llc

You can also find a great thread on pelican if you search for "composite targa top development"

Meanwhile, here's a 911 top installed