My thought is: There might be times when you want to drive your car with the top off and also have your roof with you in case you need it, but your rear trunk is full and you have no room for the the top.

Example: A trip to the golf course with a buddy. Two sets of clubs will take all the room in the rear trunk and they won't fit in the front. Who knows what the weather will do in the 5-6 hours it takes to play a round.

Idea: A soft top with a colapsable frame (or not) that fits into the existing tracks and clips already on a 914 and will fit in the front trunk when not in use. Ideally the design should be strong enough to allow you to drive the car at highway speeds without getting totally drenched.

For me, this would be a useful option for golf trips and cottage weekends when my luggage space would be put to better use than hauling around a roof that may, or may not, get used. Has anyone already done this? If not, I might try to come up with something myself.

I would say take a look at at 911/912 early "soft" targa top...

IIRC they are foldable...not just a sheet of vinyl...

You might be able to customize one of those, steel some hardware...something like that...

Rich

(man I use that smiley a lot) on the early 911 targa tops. I think collapsable would be a better term. Search the web for articles like this one and you should find plenty of pictures.

QUOTE (jonwatts @ Dec 16 2005, 08:55 AM)

Search the web for articles like............

or you could seach on this site...it's been talked about a few times...someone says he'll be building one, not sure if hes done it or not...seach using soft top and elise or whatever that new lotus is...

QUOTE (Mueller @ Dec 16 2005, 12:25 PM)

QUOTE (jonwatts @ Dec 16 2005, 08:55 AM) Search the web for articles like............ or you could seach on this site...it's been talked about a few times...someone says he'll be building one, not sure if hes done it or not...seach using soft top and elise or whatever that new lotus is...

I tried a search using 'soft top' and nothing came up, but I will try your other suggestions. Thanks.

It never rains here, of course, but the thought of a vinyl or canvas 'top' that would just attach to the front channel and snap to the targa bar sounds good. Not 100mph jaunts or completely water tight, just enough to keep out the big drops and the UV.

Think I'll talk to the local upholstery guy.

I have an Elise that Felix and I have measured. It is a true "soft" top. It uses fiberglass splines for rigidity and a very trick cam locking mechanism. The preliminary measurements are promising but we haven't done the specific engineering to make sure that a retro-fit won't compromise the original top's fit. The tops themselves aren't cheap though. I think to do it right you'd be in the $1k range if you do all the work yourself. Felix probably has some of the pictures we took. Or I could take some more pics and measurments if anyone gets serious about it. It is a few years down on my to-do list.

I did a search and found the other thread. It sounds like something may be out there, or in the works.

My idea is to take an old targa top (I happen to have two) and cut the front couple of inches off (from the front latches back). Then attach a piece of thick, waterproof nylon to that piece and the nylon would replace the rest of the roof section. To hold the roof in place, you could sew in either two pieces of strong elastic or nylon strap along the outside edges that would hook onto the trailing edge of the targa bar or sails. You could even have the edge of the roof come down over the door window-glass to keep out the rain. To give the roof an additional amount of support, you could use some fiberglass rods (like tent poles) that would wedge between the windsheild edge and the rear targa bar. The fiberglass rods could be secured to the roof with some velcro straps.

When the roof wasn't being used, it could be rolled up and stored in either the front or rear trunk and not take up that much room.

I had a 911 targa that came with the one piece solid fiberglass top, and also one with the folding top. In retrospect, the one piece fiberglass one was better, less headaches, didn't leak.

The top that we have is probably the best one of all. If anything, a piece of canvas with some clips for very temporary use would be about the only soft type that I would consider.