Hi all,
Tassie summers are far too short and the Manx I just bought is topless. Does anyone have any good ideas or designs for soft tops to keep me buggying into the cooler months.
Cheers

hmm matting resen and hardener and make a hardtop with almost sealing windows ??

tassie winters and fresh air .. should wake you up !!

good luck mate!

cheers dub

That's not a bad option for the future and I'll probably do one eventually but I'd like a nice slab of soft stuff I can stash behind the seats. Are there any decent roof molds around for a manx?

COR have hard tops for Manxs I think. Brad had one on his old blue manx. Then you just have zip out windows made up for it. :thumb

G'day mate,

Do a search as this topic has been talked about before with some great ideas coming out of it!!

Marty

If like me, you sit tall in the saddle make sure that the sides of the top do not come down beside your head. lower than eye height. Make the sides of the top stop as high as possible. Make sure that the window in the sides is as high as possible, with the zip level with the bottom edge of the side of the top. Otherwise you will not be able to see out sideways without ducking your head, which is just plain unsafe and very undesirable.

Make the zip open from the back. That means that you can crack the window open, just behind your head, a little bit for air in the rain, or you can have it half open, with your body protected and your head exposed, to give you a triangular window if it is not raining but it's cold, or you can have the window fully unzipped and folded down inside the car. If the zip opens from the front it is just bloody awful and useless as the slightest opening of the zip, while driving, turns the window into an airscoop. You don't need a double ended zip.

You need a row of press stud catches along the inside and the outside of the bottom edge of the sides. If you use those nasty sharp pointy ones or those ones with the little twisty catch, on the sides you will learn to hate them the first time you get in the car. They should be used around the sides of the top where you don't put your bum. If you put press stud catches on the outside only, the window will pop open on the down wind side during a strong side gust.

This is the voice of experience. I will look for some pictures of my weather protection and if I can I'll post them here.

Fit a grooved piece of aluminium moulding, facing forwards, to the top of the windscreen so that you slide the front edge of the top in to fit it there. It's the only way to be waterproof. Fit some grooved moulding to the back edge of the sides of the windscreen frame to slide the side curtains into. That will give you only two small areas in the top corners of the windscreen, facing into the wind and rain that will potentially leak. Think long and hard about keeping the rain out in your design. The cold you can survive, a water drip while driving onto your accelerator foot is just plain bloody infuriating.

Fit a damn good heater otherwise you will have to dress for the snow fields every time you drive. I lived through two Canberra winters in an unheated buggy. Damn me I got cold. I have heard that a couple of 12 volt electric hair driers will warm you nicely. You may need to boost your generator/alternator output.

Put on your thinking cap and design away.

Well said shaihulud!!!!!! I'd also add to be careful of blind spots. They are unavoidable but try to minimise them if you can as i have quite a large blind spot, and looking through the plastic side window on the passengers side to change lanes isn't easy, especially when it is raining and visibility in daylight is not good!!!!

Marty