1968 convertible top not closing all the way

68er · 11-28-2008

Hiya,
hoping somone out there can give me some advice on my convertible top. the canvas itself looks great/window needs replaced. It worked fine when i first bought the car (which had sat for 25 years without being touched.

I found a hinge pin that was about to fall out on the driver side, which i re-inserted through the "knee-joint" looking main hinge (which appeared to be about to fall out if it wasn't in such a bind).

I have topped the pump off with fluid, and the top goes up and down ok, BUT, when it gets to the top it lacks about 2" from being able to get the guide pins into the holes and latch it down.

in order to latch it, 2 people are needed to pull forward on the "knee-joint" looking thing with one hand, and line up the guide pin/close the latch with the other.

it wasn't like that before i put the hinge pin in.
could it be that a new top was replaced with the pin about to fall out?
is there some kind of adjustment?

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

heavy metal · 11-28-2008

Welcome to the site!!!! Check out the classic section.

**stlwagon** · 11-28-2008

Welcome to the forums!

Ric66fb · 11-28-2008

Welcome to what in my opinion is the best stang site going. Thanks for joining us.........Enjoy !!

**white angel** · 11-29-2008

Enjoy the site!!

RagHead · 11-29-2008

and enjoy the site. A lot of good people here with good info and advice

.

67ragtopStang · 11-30-2008

I have a manual top so I don't have the hydraulics to deal with on my car.

I would disconnect the hydraulic piston(s) and see if the top moves up and down easily by hand. By doing this, you can isolate it to just a mechanical hinge situation. If it moves fully with ease, it points to the hydraulic system as the culprit. If not, you won't burn out your pump trying to close against a bad hinge.

On problem I have with my top, is that it is very difficult to latch in cold weather, because the vinyl shrinks and is not as pliable. When it's warm outside, I have no trouble at all. I have even had to close it as much as I can, roll up the windows and run the car with the heat on high, to warm up the top, so I could latch it.

68er · 12-08-2008

Thanks for the advice Bob. That makes sense. It opened and closed easily last summer (after being closed non stop for 25 years), then i left it open for a couple of months, so i guess it could have shrank a little. Thanks again.