The Return of the Carson Top: Part 2 - Street Rodder Magazine

Steve Pierce created this Carson-style padded top on Ken Gross' '32 roadster. Dave Simard of East Coast Customs in Leominster, MA, built the car in 1998. It won the prestigious Bruce Meyer Preservation Award at the Grand National Roadster Show in 1999, and Best of Show at the Boston Area Roadsters' 1932 Ford 70th Anniversary Deuce Reunion in 2002. The top has held up beautifully over the last seven years, and still receives countless compliments.

Charlie's roadster has been chopped 3 1/2 inches, but Steve can custom-build a top for any chop height. He can also modify the front header bow so there's less of an "eyebrow," for a more streamlined look.

The headliner is constructed before the actual top covering is fabricated. "What makes these tops so unique is that they have a full headliner in them," Steve said. "It's like a top within a top."

"In that channel," Steve said, "I weld two bosses that fit over the stock posts, then I install two aircraft pins that lock the front. I use SS T-nuts and SS countersunk machine screws up inside to hold the wood to the aluminum."

The oak bow is for securing the front of the top and for tacking the material. Steve creates beautiful, precise aluminum welds. The top is cross-braced for added strength. That aluminum channel allows for a rubber gasket there. There's a rubber seal between the windshield and the top.

Note that the bar stock that comes forward is drilled into the front bow. This is also the same area to mount a windshield wiper, if desired. Steve can notch the header for the wiper arm and blade and drill a hole for the windshield wiper. For Charlie Dolan's '32, Pierce used an old-style, chrome two-speed windshield wiper motor.

Next, 4-inch burlap furniture webbing is stretched tightly over the bows. "I really pull on that material to eliminate the sway effect between the bows," Steve said. "That's the area where the sag can be very pronounced unless it's pulled tightly."

The stretched burlap ensures there's a continuous curve, not a series of connected depressions, from one bow to another.

Steve tacks the burlap evenly to the front oak bow. "I have the ability to pull it very tightly to achieve the pleasing shape everyone wants with this top," he said.

"With a leverage stretcher, I can pull the burlap material really tightly," he explained.

"Then I tack the burlap in place," Steve said. Note how he uses another leverage tool braced against the windshield post to pull the fabric to the desired tightness. "This material will never lose its stretch," he insisted. "It's designed for support in sofas and chairs. It's what they install on the bottoms, then set the springs on top, so it's very rugged."

Steve begins measuring for the top material. First there's a burlap covering that's installed over the webbing. This becomes the base for the top padding and it keeps the padding from pushing down onto the headliner.

He's tightening, tacking, pulling, and fitting. Skilled, practiced, and meticulous handwork ensures the finished Carson top is perfectly smooth with no wrinkles.

Steve uses a pneumatic stapler to drive the staples tightly into the wood.