1927 Ford T Roadster Rod Tops Fitment - Dressed To The T: Part 1

With work completed on my ’27 Ford T roadster it was time to go out and have some fun with the car. While I have logged many topless miles (Editor’s note: Not Jerry, thank goodness, but riding sans top in the Road Tour roadsters. —B.B.), I wanted to make some provisions for the possibility of some adverse weather conditions on trips with my T.

I knew just who to call to get the job done. A Rod Tops unit had protected me from the elements in 2001 in the Coast to Coast convertible. A removable and stowable Rod Tops system had made the 24,000 miles I logged during the summer of 2010 in the Shadow Rods XL27–bodied pickup very comfortable. While Rod Tops makes units that fit right onto the Shadow Rods bodies, the XL27 bodies are 25 percent larger than a standard ’27 roadster. It would be necessary to custom design and manufacture a top specifically for my T. The folks at Rod Tops were up to the challenge and have done many custom top installations in the past. I just needed to get the roadster to their facility in Ellsworth, Michigan, to get the process started.

Rod Tops President Dave Draper has been involved in the automotive industry for almost four decades. In 1976 he co-founded Cars and Concepts, a specialty vehicle manufacturer serving the OEM automotive industry. In 1982 Cars and Concepts reintroduced the domestic convertible top to the American public with LeBaron convertibles for Chrysler. A year later Cars and Concepts introduced the Mustang convertible to a public who was anxious to let the sun shine in. In 1996 Draper teamed with longtime employee and master upholsterer John Wagner to form Time Machines Unlimited. With Draper’s background in automotive design and Wagner’s skills as a trimmer, Time Machines Unlimited began to restore high-end classic automobiles. Seeing a niche that needed to be filled in the street rod industry, Rod Tops was started to provide a line of convertible tops for hot rods.

There are decisions that need to be made by the customer before any work begins on the construction and installation of a custom convertible top for a street rod application. For example, what are the space constraints when the top is on the vehicle? How much head room is needed for comfort, vision, and overall safety? How will it attach to the body? Are side curtains wanted? What will the material and color of the top be? This month we look at the factors that go into making these decisions. Next month we will get a look at the finished top and tonneau, how it is installed and disassembled, and how well it filled my needs during my Florida winter.