Hardtop Identification

zagato750gt · #1 (**permalink**) 08-28-2007, 12:08 AM

Hi all,
I would like to complete my '63 101 Spider with a hardtop.
I realise that they need bodywork skills to make them fit correctly, thats ok.
What I want to avoid is ending up with a passo corto one.
How do I tell the difference between a short or long wheelbase hartop?
This one is for sale at the moment in Germany, but it is 300 miles away from me.
Which dimension could I ask the vendor to give me which would identify the model it was made for? He says it came off a 1958 750D.
Or is there a Pininfarina type plate difference if it still has one?
It is steel and has a glass rear window, the lining is cream colored.
Thanks for your help
Nick

GTD · #2 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 08:10 AM

Nick
If the seller is correct and the hardtop was fitted on a 58 750, it will not fit your 101 Spider.

If it is a metal hardtop it was likely built by Pinin Farina and had a metal plate attached at the center point beneath the rear window. Most aftermarket hardtops were built with Fibreglass.

zagato750gt · #3 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 08:21 AM

Hi GTD,
As in "cannot be made to fit"?
or "alot of work to make it fit"?
or "a few mods needed to make it fit"?
after all it needs restoring anyway!
Nick

GTD · #4 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 08:26 AM

Nick
As in "must cut and remove 5cm from length of chassis".

Gordon Raymond · #5 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 09:17 AM

Much easier to find a correct 101 top. They do show up now and then. The 750 tops are too rare to be cutting on anyway. Leave them for the 750's and find a later top.
Mine is a very late 101, 1600 top, made for the trunk hinge hooks. On disassembly, it never had the PF # plate, though it is correct and I have known it since it was imported by Knauz Continental in Lake Forest Ill. in the mid 60's. ALL the 1300 101 tops with the rear wing nut hold downs I've ever seen had the PF # plate. Hope this helps. Gordon Raymond

Lionel Velez · #6 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 11:28 AM

I am trying to understand the wisdom or logic of having a convertible hard top.

First: they are boat anchors sitting in some obscure corner. Second: these cars are never driven often enough, or by that matter a daily driver whose owner will be better served by installing the hard top during winters. Who drive a convertible car during the best season of the year Fall, Spring and early summer with a hard top?:

Third: One justification is that increases the value of the car, nonsense, the car is valuable no more with top or no top. Anyone who feels that it must have a hard top contact me I will be happy to unload my original steel Pininfarina hard top to the highest offer. I am not trying to sarcastic, I just having a hard time believing that having a hard top is such a great thing. Of course, I would not have felt the same way 30 years ago. Today, these are very different times and if you must have it.

gowanusvin · #7 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 11:47 AM

Lionel is absolutely right on this one. The tops may be pretty, but they weigh a ton, are ungainly, typcially scratch the paint on the rear panel. I haven't used mine in 25 years, yet folks are always pestering me to sell it. In fact, I don't even use the soft top on my 1600 Spider because of the frame, another finger-crushing, tear-inducing, torture device. Best of worlds: get a tonneau cover.

GTD · #8 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 12:36 PM

Lionel et all
If you own a hardtop and do not use it, and feel it does not increase the value of your car, there is a simple solution...sell it.
The fact that you've kept it for years betrays the value of the item -to you. It's not that you need it - you simply can't part with it!

Lionel Velez · #9 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTD

Lionel et all
If you own a hardtop and do not use it, and feel it does not increase the value of your car, there is a simple solution...sell it.
The fact that you've kept it for years betrays the value of the item -to you. It's not that you need it - you simply can't part with it!

gowanusvin · #10 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 02:24 PM

Unlike Lionel's my Pinin Farina top is not for sale; I'd have nothing to ***** about if I sold it.
Vince Coppola

zagato750gt · #11 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTD

Nick
As in "must cut and remove 5cm from length of chassis".

GTD · #12 (**permalink**) 08-30-2007, 11:24 PM

I've edited my previous post to agree with this information which I recently discovered. There was an aftermarket supplier of steel hardtops; Ellebi. They are distinctly different from the Pinin Farina design.

**Subtle** · #13 (**permalink**) 08-31-2007, 06:38 AM

I drove a 101 Spider one winter when transferred to Winnipeg, and my claim to fame is starting it at 49 below F.

. Parked overnight outdoors, but plugged in with a lower rad hose heater and battery warmer.

Installed a bigger interior heater and with a lot of driving at 20 t0 30 below it was warm inside.

Never thought about getting a hard top.

**AlfaDuc** · #14 (**permalink**) 08-31-2007, 07:01 AM

Nick,
We just completed a 2500 mile, two week trip to the Alfa convention (in Detroit) in our '65 Spider Veloce without a hardtop and lived to tell the story

. If you like the appearance of a Spider with hardtop, then go for it. But the standard soft top works fine for me, and we didn't get wet in the rain when the top was up. Of course, no one puts the top up in light rain. That's what the accelerator is for

Jim