I've decided that I'm going to (attempt at least) to make a transparent top my my Lotus Elise. IF it all works out, I'll be offering them for sale.
I have a couple of questions and hopefully some folks here can help me out.
At one point I bought one - but it attached the same way as the hardtop -- and long story short it was a sucky design that resulted in the top flying off the car on the highway -- I do not want this to happen to me or anyone else -- so mine is not going to work that way at all.
My plan is to make the top attach like the soft-top does. Had the one I bought attached this way, it never would of flown off the car.
I've looked at several different designs -- and one option is to actually start with the side pieces of the soft tops. I figured what I could so is source those from Lotus and buy a set and give it a try -- my problem is that I'm not sure exactly what part(s) it is I need.
When I look at the parts catalog -- I see these two parts
C116V0003H and C116V0004H
...but I don't know if it comes with all the other internal pieces. What I think I really need is basically everything for the soft top -- minus the canvas top itself -- I need the entire mechanisms that attach to the sides of the soft tops. Any leads on where I can get those would be great.
So -- couple of questions -- first off - can anyone tell me where to get the 2 parts that I need (and if I have to buy all the internal parts separately) --- and 2nd -- IF I can get this all to work -- would there actually be any interest in these if I can keep the price under $1,300 or so? -- my goal is to keep the price around the same amount it would cost for a used factory hard-top and require zero modifications to the car to work.
I think it would be really neat if I can do this -- plus it would only take like 10 seconds to put it on and off Obviously they would be transparent, but would be tinted and have UV protection as well.
I have a couple of questions and hopefully some folks here can help me out.
At one point I bought one - but it attached the same way as the hardtop -- and long story short it was a sucky design that resulted in the top flying off the car on the highway -- I do not want this to happen to me or anyone else -- so mine is not going to work that way at all.
My plan is to make the top attach like the soft-top does. Had the one I bought attached this way, it never would of flown off the car.
I've looked at several different designs -- and one option is to actually start with the side pieces of the soft tops. I figured what I could so is source those from Lotus and buy a set and give it a try -- my problem is that I'm not sure exactly what part(s) it is I need.
When I look at the parts catalog -- I see these two parts
C116V0003H and C116V0004H
...but I don't know if it comes with all the other internal pieces. What I think I really need is basically everything for the soft top -- minus the canvas top itself -- I need the entire mechanisms that attach to the sides of the soft tops. Any leads on where I can get those would be great.
So -- couple of questions -- first off - can anyone tell me where to get the 2 parts that I need (and if I have to buy all the internal parts separately) --- and 2nd -- IF I can get this all to work -- would there actually be any interest in these if I can keep the price under $1,300 or so? -- my goal is to keep the price around the same amount it would cost for a used factory hard-top and require zero modifications to the car to work.
I think it would be really neat if I can do this -- plus it would only take like 10 seconds to put it on and off Obviously they would be transparent, but would be tinted and have UV protection as well.