The convertible festiva ("spyder") project is back

[htchbck]

Well, I had to take some time out for and 18 hour semester to get caught back up in school, but the B6 Spyder is under construction again. Except I'm running the B3 right now due to the fact that I pulled the B6 for a complete overhaul. But the roof has been cut, extra metal has been added for support, stability, and crashworthiness, and the hardtop is almost done, and the soft top is... still not finished. Here's what I've got so far. I'll post more as I get the time.Definitely not the best looking ever, but hey, I'm not finished with it either... hopefully by the time I'm done it will be at least halfway decent.

[PaulLehr]

It already looks good how it is. I cant wait to see what you come up with to finish off the car. Glad to see you didn't give up on it

[packrat427]

I like it ,are you going to have a lift off top in the front or soft front and back , what would be so cool to do in the front would be to have a clear lift off top like the vette over the drivers compartment

[eye_of_ra93]

This Festy is outa hand, way to go

Man that looks sweet ! I have often thought about doing a convertable, but I have been beaten to it. I give you props for this car it will be sweet with the B6. any other mods instore? Keep us posted. I'm going to look for you in Cardomain.

[Safety Guy]

I like!

I think a soft top in the rear, and a hardtop over the front seat would work well and not be as difficult as a full soft top.

That looks really fun!

Karl

[htchbck]

I've converted the old rear top into a hardtop and I have a vinyl softtop in the front. I also have a full softtop that really sucks, but I learned a lot in making it, and I plan to do a full soft top that will fold most of the way into the trunk, with the option of putting the hardtop on in winter if I choose to do so. I'm still working on a better mounting system for the hardtop, but right now I have brackets welded on to the top, and they screw to the car using wingbolts. I'll get some pics of the hardtop and stuff as soon as I get time off from work and school and working on other people's cars at the same time, lol. And the B6 turned out to be in worse shape than I thought, so I'm now considering doing a little hacking and welding under the hood while I'm at it and dropping in a BP... any hints on that particular swap would be great. I've already searched the forums, but if anyone knows any extra tidbits, every little bit helps.

[F.Y.R.E.]

weatherproofin' concerns for hardtop conv.

[color=green] I'm still working on a better mounting system for the hardtop, but right now I have brackets welded on to the top, and they screw to the car using wingbolts. color]

So, htchbck, i understand that, but what'd you do about the waterproofing, or have you gotten that far? Plz, I'm stuck. Can you buy the stuff, do ya gotta weld something and weatherstrip the whole thing? That softtop conversion of Gary Fulkerson's the closest thing I've seen to finished product that would go great with my project, but I don't know where he got it from or whether or not it would work with a hardtop conv. I'm thinkin' I'm just gonna cut tha' backside off and just work on the tailgate. I'm runnin' out of ideas, if ya got any, hit me up. thanx. I was just thinkin', how are you holding down the backside at the bottom? Brackets also?

[htchbck]

on the top of the back I used some cheap rubber weatherstripping for going around doors, and the sides I just put the old weatherstripping back in place and reinstalled the side windows, so it sealed up just like the original seals used to. Pretty ghetto, but it works, I drove it more than one in the rain like that. I have an old pic of it somewhere with just the back part on. Over the front (forward of the door pillars) I just used a vynil top with snaps to stretch it into place and a strip of industrial velcro (about an 1 3/4" wide) to provide a "seal." It kept out the rain suprisingly well actually. Over the doors I just let the vynil hang to the outside when it was parked and slammed it in the door when I was driving to keep it from flapping. I only actally drove it with the top on around town, it flapped too much at highway speeds cause I used cheap vynil on it. Now all of that is gone and its back to square one I'm working on a frame for the rear hard top using some parts and weatherstripping from a diahatsu rocky (similar to a samauri)

Here's the old pic I was talking about:

[F.Y.R.E.]

Thanx, htchbck, that's the answer I needed, a clear cut direction. I looked at some door weatherstrip at Autozone, just rackin' my brain about it, funny it was starin' at my face. It's temporary, but it'll do for me to just get started. I'm gonna hit up the JY's today and this week for that specific Daihatsu Rocky. What gave you the idea that that's the SUV to look at? Anyways, thanx for the help. I'm gonna cut the hatch for a tailgate about 1" under the hatch window later. I'm gonna try to relocate the lockin' mechanism to the left or right to lock the tailgate and and find a smaller lock from something else, haven't looked around yet, to lock the hatch. I guess I could look at campers on tops of trucks for that.

[htchbck]

I'd recommend not cutting the hatch underneath the window. On mine I just cut the pillars in line with the bottom of the glass and then took the glass and rubber strip loose from the body. If you do that then you have a solid seal across where the bottom of the glass used to be, since the hatch is hollow but the front and back come together at that point. If you cut below it you will have two seperate pieces of hatch all the way across that will have to be joined together somehow. And as for how I picked the Rocky in particular, I didn't really. I had already tried two trackers and a samauri, but the bolts were all in too tight cause I didn't bring my breaker bar to the yard that day. Then I saw what I thought was another samauri, and just to give a clue as to how similar the samauri and the rocky are, it didn't have the badges on it, and I didn't realize it wasn't a samauri till I was looking under the hood and saw a diahatsu motor under rather than a suzuki motor. I looked it up when I got home and found out it was called a rocky. I'd never seen another one before and I've never seen one since... but the bolts weren't stuck, so I got the rear roof frame off of it. I'd recommend hunting up a samauri or a tracker though, they should be much easier to find.

[F.Y.R.E.]

I went to the JY Saturday and I don't know how easy it is to find donor cars where you're at, but if you're in Texas, it's a different story. Only two JY's have festivas with about 4 to 5 a piece. I went to one that had 4, two blue, two red. Goofy me, I forgot to bring a screwdriver for some replacement dash parts. But I picked up a pretty clean ashtray free of cracks, this small cover part at the top-middle of the dash. I found some Trackers and Sidekicks, no Samurais. The JY said they had a Rocky, but I was unable to find it. So I figured I'd pull some weatherstrippin' from one of the Sidekicks' softtop. I think that'll make a good seal with some silicone sealant at the roof cut. If this works, I might go back and get more to cover all edges. Now the C-pillars may be a different story also. I haven't cut the roof yet. This weekend I'm gonna grind it off. When I start cuttin' I'll takes some snaps and post them when I get back to the computer. Hey, again, thanx for everything. BTW, I told my brother about what I'm gonna do, he laughed, then ridiculed me about it. I simply told him not to crush someone else's dreams since he had none to speak of. Funny thing, though, he didn't say anything else to me about it. Guess I hit a nerve. 8)

[htchbck]

[quote="Only two JY's have festivas with about 4 to 5 a piece."[/quote]

If you found that many festies then you're having way better luck than I am. The PnP is the only place around here that ever has them, and its usually just a couple, I've never seen more than 4 there at any given time. Every once in a while another yard will get one, and I'm on their list to call when one comes in. I usually have to go the day they call though, cause if I try to go there the next day they've already sent it to the crusher :'(

[Safety Guy]

FYRE wrote:

I told my brother about what I'm gonna do, he laughed, then ridiculed me about it. I simply told him not to crush someone else's dreams since he had none to speak of.

You tell him!! Good point, FYRE.

Karl

[F.Y.R.E.]

Actually, I wasn't tryin' to be mean, just being honest. But he'll come around when I get the hardtop and rollbar finished. Hey, are there any members here from Waco or Central Texas for that matter? Some it will be nice to have some festy comradery.