1956 Smooth line hard top

[ron56]

Hi, Does anyone have experience with the Smooth Line hard top for the early bird. My wife doesn't like riding in the car with the top down and with the soft top it's very noisy. On top of that I'm not sure in the rain, if we would stay drier with the soft top up or down. The top was gaps over the windows. I was told from the top supplier that it was made that way and that the OEM top leaked bad also. It looks like from the build sheet that the car was delivered with a hard top. Someone along the way added the soft top and lost the hard top. I brought the car two years ago at a auction here in SLC so I know nothing about the history of the car. What I found so interesting about the Smooth Line was they stated the weight was around 35 lbs. That would to me seem to make it much easier to put on and off for old people. Both my wife and I are in are late 70's.

 

[Pete986]

She doesn’t like riding with the top down??
Sounds like you’ve bought the wrong car

 

[Bond007]

She doesn’t like riding with the top down??
Sounds like you’ve bought the wrong car

Why would you say that? I greatly enjoy driving my 2003 with hardtop, soft top, and no top. IMO, the car looks best with the hardtop.

 

[Pete986]

It’s a convertible.
if you want a roof, maybe she’d prefer a coupe

 

[Dave H]

Pete986, ron56 was asking for advice, not criticism.

Ron, we have a 57 (I know, not the 56 that you're asking about), and it came only with the hard top. In our area, we can never be sure about foul weather sneaking up on us, so we've never removed the hard top. There's another thread in this forum that indicates the weight of the fiberglass top to be about 85 pounds. When you find a hardtop, I'd recommend that you consider a hardtop hoist, just to be on the safe side.

 

[ron56]

Hi, I'll try and take another cut at my original thread and streamline it:
Does anyone have any info on Smooth Line hard tops. They appear to be 1/2 the price and weight of the OEM currently available hard tops.