Chopped top?

[Kelly]

Anyone ever cut the top off a Legacy?

Or have any pics of one butchered up?

Also any pics of the rear glass removed?

[evolutionmovement]

I made a rendering once, but I doubt I could find it. These cars would be easier than some, being frameless doors. I always thought a chopped, Nomad-style 2-door wagon would be an awesome (if expensive) project. Certainly, there'd be no others, unlike the ubiquitous 32 Ford. Sedan would be easier, though.

[Grayguy]

hmm...maybe this is what needs to happen to the $200 SS I just bought...

[evolutionmovement]

Yeah, the cowl on these cars is pretty low, so you if you got the seats lower, you'd still be able to see, but there's decent headroom to take from to begin with. Using the sandblasting method on the tops of all the glass wouldn't be too bad, really. Cost much more in time than money. The cool thing is, you'd get the "gangster" look all the cars seem to be going for today, but unlike the new junk, you'd actually be able to see out of the friggin' thing because the door tops don't come up to your chin and it doesn't have pillars 3-feet thick.

[Mattheww044]

Actually, I have seen a pre-face legacy that had a soft-top on it. Obviously custom, and its like some old lady driving it. Nothing else done to the car, Im guessing she bought it that way or just loved her Subie as we all do and wanted a "convertable". I havent seen it lately but I moved to the other side of town. If I see it around Ill snap a couple pics.

[evolutionmovement]

Fake. They're just cloth over the roof. Common with old people and certain ethnic groups, particularly Tauruses, complete with the very convincing separate pieces of cloth on the tops of the door frames. I've seen bad photochops of Imprezas (and there may have been an actual one built in Japan or some place, IIRC). There was a company that converted a limited number of 1983/4 GL hardtops to convertible (and some had convincing fake vinyl roofs as well), but there weren't all that many and that was about it for convertible Subarus. I imagine they were horrible to drive. Maybe with the doors welded shut and steel bars across the door area they'd be OK. I love those cars, but rigidity, even in the sedan, which had a B pillar and a roof, was not their strong point.

[gijonas]

Ive seen it done.Friend of mine with dozens of subarus on his property owns a late 90's legacy chopped and converted into a late model brat type thing as well - the builder called it the Jaja (haha) not a Baja.It is pretty cool really.No pics sorry.

[evolutionmovement]

I saw one of those on ebay I think. I can't remember. He's talking about a chopped roof, though. I think I've seen some SEMA WRX/STIs, but never an old Legacy.

[Kelly]

I'm thinking more of removing the top, not lowering it. I have a couple ideas, but I don't really want to go resizing glass, nor putting in that much effort. Well see.

Im real curious in particular what the Wagon rear looks like with the glass removed. The hatch glass wraps around the frame, and I assume it glues in, along with the Quarter glass.

I'm looking for pics of the frames with the glass removed specifically, or maybe if someone in the are has a rear hatch they'd be willing to donate.

[evolutionmovement]

The old method of chopping glass is to mask off the part you want and sand blast the upper portion off. I think you could drop the roof and use that method on all the windows relatively simply. You'd have to extend the length of the roof, I would think, though, to match the new locations of the A- and D- pillars.

But, yes, the windows just glue in. There's an indent for them, oversized to the glass for expansion, adhesive, and trim room. The rear tailgate has that black edge trim around that is "just" stuck in the adhesive. The hidden backside is a strip of spikes that fits in the gap. Don't do what I did if you remove them—heat them up! Otherwise, I'm not sure how to remove them without curling and ruining them. I would guess the other windows are the same deal, but that's all I've pulled off (^%$&* rust!).

[Dynamic Entry]

Kelly, you must have picked up my wavelength, or vice-versa, because I was thinking about this again on monday


I have been dreaming up some severe body modifications since my chassis is beyond hope of actually looking 'good'

definitely thought about removing all the pillars and glass including the windshield

would put on a low profile dealy a la Romeo's chopped thing



but then I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, you could cut the pillars off at their bottoms in such a way that would allow putting clamps on that could turn your entire roof&pillar assembly into a hard top that could be held on when needed. rear glass would be a problem, and the A pillars and windshield would likely need to be left on in this situation.

which begs the question... would the windscreen & A pillars collapse on the freeway without the support of the rest?


anyway, it's still winter, but I think come June my car is gonna taste the grinder in a big way.

[evolutionmovement]

I'd be more concerned with the low pressure over and behind the car causing the roof to fly up or resonate like mad.

You need a glass windshield for legality in the US. What are Canada's laws? In Europe, you can get away with wearing a helmet in lieu of, but the US requires DOT windshield safety glass, wipers, and washers (Plastics actually beat the glass on every test except for UV degradation, but the main issue is that they get scratched to hell by wipers, so I think that technically, the wipers mandate the glass). Old racecars may get exemptions, but the cop will definitely give you shit on something that's not and forget about state inspection.

[N1446]

[evolutionmovement]

Where's that from? Hate the side pipes. I think the windshield needs to be cut down and the B-pillar removed, but it doesn't look bad. Not sure how well that spoiler works, but I think I'm one of the only people that actually care. Either way, the loss of structural rigidity must make it ass to drive. Maybe if a bar was welded across the insides to link the front and rear at about side molding height it would be OK. High step-over, but that'll keep the old people and sweat hogs out.

[N1446]

http://picasaweb.google.com/adriankirkb ... egacyGen1#

i found a gold mine of pics on the first gen, compliments of this dudes myspace^ some great rides there

[epicfail]

Side pipe is definitely bad-ass. A body cross-brace, harness bar style, would be in order.

[Dynamic Entry]

side pipes are gross. but I find the chop encouraging and I think parking is the biggest reason I would hesitate.

that gallery is the single best collection I've seen.

loved the white wedding parade.


Steve, I feel like hard-top clamps like a Jeep has, in conjunction with some weather stripping for tight fit would hold the roof down rather well.

Also, you say a bar tying the front and rear of the chassis together is important? I was just thinking a cross bar/roll bar for torsion.
but it makes sense. I guess some bars coming from the center of the roll bar to the back corners would be ideal, but makes having a sedan pretty pointless.....

[evolutionmovement]

Basically, it would have the effect of welding the doors shut (actually, maybe better, but the bar would be low enough to step over, so I don't know). I wouldn't want a car that couldn't be parked on level ground with the doors open, Facel Vega Excellence-style, like I suspect this would. An H bar behind the front seats tying the two longitudinal bars together might work well and be acceptably hidden, allowing some recline and foot room for backseat passengers under the bar. Even better, would be running another leg from the center of the H bar to the rear bulkhead. You could go even further than that, but your time/benefit ratio would drop dramatically and, frankly, the solutions to tie what I'm thinking in aesthetically wouldn't fit the style of the car at all. OR, depending on how it would interfere with defrost and such, you could run a middle beam down the center, front-rear bulkhead at trunk height, similar to a dual cockpit D-Type (or the sixties Bat Mobile/Lincoln show car).

[Kelly]

Well, I was thinking if the whole top came off, the doors would have to be welded shut. The B pillar would be an issue as well, because the seatbelts are attached to it. The cops in my little town are WAY hardcore and I'd get busted for sure if I modified too much.

In highschool, a buddy of mine had a Suzuki Sidekick that we put hydraulics in. It was soo frickin funny, but anyway, after about a month none of the doors would open or close very easily.

[Kelly]

dp

[evolutionmovement]

Shit, yeah. I didn't even think about the seat belt mountings. There's not a real attractive way around that. If you would weld the doors anyway, you can gut them (what purpose would the glass serve without a top?) and run a beam or two across the space vacated by the glass. Maybe you'd want to keep the front glass for buffeting. What might not be bad would be cutting down the windshield and sand blasting the side windows so they came down from the top of the windshield level at the A-pillar like a triangle to the top of the door when they're up. I think they'd look best swept back further, but the B-pillar space would mess that up. OR you could keep part of the B-pillar up to the seat belt mount (or lower the mount a little) and run everything in a descending line from the A-pillar, take up the B-pillar along the way, and end it with the rear windows. Getting in and out would still be a PITA unless you put the windows on a remote.

[Dynamic Entry]

ha ha, I didn't remember about the seatbelts either!! how daft.... now I understand why that guy left the B pillars.

so maybe this is the way to to it.



could likely rig up a rag top to seal it when needed

[evolutionmovement]

Interesting. Folds up pretty neat, too, unlike the new Fiat 500. And I actually kind of like the wheels. They're funny—they make the car almost look classy.