| Has anybody seen the wall brackets that Mazda sell for suspending the hard top. Basically, it's a couple of brackets that are mounted on the wall and the hard top is suspended by its rear brackets. Looks very good from my little knowledge and also appeared to be a good price at £75 (unfortunately plus VAT) (1/00) |
| How much ?? You can get a couple of big screws from your local DIY shop for a lot less than that. :). However I use a hard top hoist (from the US by Hot 'n' bothered) cost £95 :(. The advantage with using the hoist, it is a one man job to remove the lid. If I used the two-screws method I would need a friend. (1/00) |
| I am sure I could make these for a lot less. Iam a fabricator / welder maybe this could be a line I could make available to Donutz at a good price the only thing is I do not have a hard top so I do not know what they are like, so any pics or details would be good. Will somebody send me details to :- dave@h4ppyness.demon.co.uk (1/00) |
| I've had a hard top for a couple of years and was going to get one of these. BUT for gbp 1.00 I went to my local diy shop and bought 2 rawl bolts (big bolts for walls) the head of the bolts is the same size as the hard top rear pegs. drill 2 hols the correct distance appart in the wall. fit rawl bolts and hang hard top for summer. Job done. (1/00) |
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Don't hang or rest your hard top on the chrome deck lugs - they'll snap off. I use a hoist and a trolley - both from Moss. The hanging brackets from Mazda are good but they include an assembly that fastens to the top - the assembly then fastens to the brackets on the wall. (1/00) |
| Don't recommend this approach at all. I have seen tops with cracks in the fibreglass as a result of standing them on the lugs let alone hanging from them. (3/00) |
| I removed my hardtop today and fitted the Mazda bracket - and, of course, hung it up! Having looked carefully at this bracket I would definitely not hang a hardtop from the chrome deck latches alone. The bracket is designed so that the hardtop is supported under the 'B' pillars and the side latches of the top are locked onto the bracket. The hooks which fit under the chrome deck latches seem to simply hold the top against the bracket and do not, IMHO, take any of the hung weight. (3/00) |
| I was looking to make a hanger for my hardtop, so I was wondering if anyone had plans for 1 or built one themselves. (3/00) |
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I use a block & tackle pulley system (homemade) in my very small garage that enables a single person to lift/drop the hardtop directly onto the parked car (& store it above the car). This may prove to be a challenge for the less strong but you could always use more pulleys to improve the leverage. I tested for the first time this weekend and it work OK although I want to make a specific 3 point harness to ensure the hardtop lifts horizontally & does not tilt (due to the weight distribution of the hardtop) or sway. You could also protect the hardtop with a covering of some sort to keep the dust off. I used regular pulleys screwed into the timber beams, a length of mountaineering rope (nylon, red, soft & strong), and some wide straps around the hardtop (to be replaced with harness). I don't have any pictures at the moment and in any case any photo would probably be obscured by the mountain bikes (including one an enormous Cannondale tandem) similarly attached to the garage roof beams. (3/00) |
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Do you have a garage? Check out the hardtop hoist. - go to http://www.performancebuyers.com/ - search on 'hardtop' - click on 'hardtop hoist' to get the blurb and see a pic If you have enough headroom in the garage you can leave it suspended from the ceiling (if you dare!) whenever it's not on the car. I'm not sure whether this sort of thing is available in the UK but you'd probably be able to rig up something suitable with bits from a suitable supplier: Sailing hardware? Climbing equipment? (3/00) |