VALMET Retractable Glass Roof Thunderbird

[Sierra977]

[RetroGeorge]

Man, I'd pay FIFTY DOLLARS for that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. No matter how you cut it, that Retrobird is a BEAUTIFUL car.

[007Cruiser]

Kill the glass roof and give me the porthole back.

[carntz]

Kill the glass roof and give me the porthole back.

Why not both?

[BLACK BEAUTY]

_{Look at all the trunk room! porthole seems not to be a problem. Add the supercharger and away we go!}

[TommyT]

Very wonderful ideal there.Wish Ford had realized this would be the way to go with the removable hard top.Leave out the glass top and just have a foldable hard top.Ford claims the top weighs in at 88 lbs but for myself and I'm sure I speak for others also it feels like 188 lbs.

[AZTB]

One of the things I always enjoyed about both of our Birds is that each gave us options for 3 different cars. As brilliant as the Valmet is, it doesn't provide that variety, IMO.

[AyPapiii]

The top that should have been. The interior color that should have been offered. The chrome trim that should have been in place on the scoop. The fit of the body panels which should have been.

And, yes, that supercharger off the R Jaguar and the port holes would have made it perfect.

Thanks for sharing this.

[carntz]

When I spoke with Nancy when in NOLA she kinda indicated the car was problematic and as I recall the concept was crushed.

[JerriLampon]

With extra times on hand, the mind drifts back to the retractible hardtop possibilities. I've looked at the 2015-ish Miata M5 top action (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4xsH6799xk) and pondered how to acquire a system, adapt it to the 'Birds, etc. But why go to all that trouble? The Thunderbird already has a retracting top system! It's just a cloth version. What we need to do is to replace the soft with hard.
I've gone bleary-eyed watching the top go up and down trying to figure out how to add fiberglass components to replace the cloth. Each "fold" has its own configuration, but does the fabric preclude a rigid piece? In other words, does the fabric fold sideways, for instance, in order to squish the top into the compartment?
It seems that if the folding goes backward as the top comes down, there are no barriers to a hard top, but to fit them together to be water tight is another engineering matter.
I've located a top mechanism for relatively cheap (<$400) to test, but I resist because I can see a scenario where once I strip it down, it becomes very obvious that there's no way a hard surface can be attached after all.
Any visionary insights out there?

[Quickdraw]

~~~~~~~
Any visionary insights out there?

ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!

[wcoates]

http://www.thunderbirdnest.com/forum...hardtops/page5

The above thread was one that was discussed at length about retractable hardtops. There were many members who show pictures and made comments about retraceables they owned. I researched many before I bought the Volvo C70 we are now driving. Sure was fun putting the top down on Dec 26 while Bird was sleeping. The thing that I find extremely interesting is that of all the retractables that I researched ( XLR, G37, SC 430, Two Chryslers, VW ) the Volvo top was the most like the Valmet Bird in style and in operation and it had 3 pieces vs the two for the Bird. Same top down operation. What bothered me was that the Volvo car company was owned by Ford and they produced it during 5 years of Ford ownership.

Would never doubt anything Nancy ever said about Ford production, the 20 years of counting beans at GM makes me believe that the wunnerful bean counting staff was a bigger problem than the problematic top.( That's my visionary insight!) (Gene could you find and post the picture of the Volvo you should previously on the site? It will show the similarities of the Volvo and the Valmet Bird). God how I hated counting beans for GM!

[007Cruiser]

A story on the Valmet with photos.

https://www.allcarindex.com/concept/...le-glass-roof/

[Vintage Merlot]

With extra times on hand, the mind drifts back to the retractible hardtop possibilities. I've looked at the 2015-ish Miata M5 top action (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4xsH6799xk) and pondered how to acquire a system, adapt it to the 'Birds, etc. But why go to all that trouble? The Thunderbird already has a retracting top system! It's just a cloth version. What we need to do is to replace the soft with hard.
I've gone bleary-eyed watching the top go up and down trying to figure out how to add fiberglass components to replace the cloth. Each "fold" has its own configuration, but does the fabric preclude a rigid piece? In other words, does the fabric fold sideways, for instance, in order to squish the top into the compartment?
It seems that if the folding goes backward as the top comes down, there are no barriers to a hard top, but to fit them together to be water tight is another engineering matter.
I've located a top mechanism for relatively cheap (<$400) to test, but I resist because I can see a scenario where once I strip it down, it becomes very obvious that there's no way a hard surface can be attached after all.
Any visionary insights out there?

I say give it a try. You obviouslly have the vision and engineering curiosity to have a lot of fun with this.

[JerriLampon]

I probably should make some casts of 1:18 scale hard tops to see if they can be cut and folded properly. Less expensive experiment that say.