the 911 cab ====> a girly car

[qikcpa]

let me say first, i have a cab, actually two. as far as the automotive world goes convertibles are girl cars. not that they are just for girls to drive, but they are feminine in nature with exception. bear with me here and ill get to the meat of this. looking at a cab...



it just says weee, lets go for a fun drive in the country. top down. not a care in the world. now, on the other hand, the widebody coupe is all about business. it looks muscular with its haunches. ready to jump. fat tires for max grip. sleek and fast. if you blink you might miss it.



it kinda reminds of the baseball vs. football comparison by carlin... Football or baseball - YouTube

some exceptions to the above rule might be a corvette or viper maybe the old e-type jag. (you have to remember that the masculinity of a car is based on the ratio of hood length to passenger area)
then we have the poor targa. hmmm androgenous at best. Pat? it doesnt really belong in either of the two camps.



the sc coupe is kinda like your accountant or your nerdy cousin dwayne. with a duck tail its kinda like a skinny marathoner...not really that angry look.


oh you say what about the m491 widebody/turbo cab. that has it all...yeah, kinda like a professional softball player



Then of course there is the speedster. some folks love the styling but its not for me it looks like the top half of a cab was smooshed and then a bulbous lid added to the back.



this one even looks like a childs toy.



to each his own and no comment on this...


ive seen some threads on here where guys have welded roofs onto cabs/targa's. for the lady cab that seems like the unkindest of operations. for the targa, a decision has been made.

but i want the best of both worlds without the permanence of welded roof. i want the bad-a$$ coupe but i also want my cab for those early spring mornings or late fall afternoon runs to...well anywhere i can go. ive been in coupes with sunroofs and windows down. too much buffeting if you ask me. since i cant make up my mind which car i want, ive decided to diy the perfect car. this thread will be the detailed ofshoot of my 1976 targertible coupe thread. im going to turn my car into a porsche with a removeable hard top. i have seen the fiberglass ones that a pelican was selling and in my humble opinion it did not look right. it blurred the proportions of the coupe. anyone that has stared at pictures of porsches as long as i, could tell it was an afterthought. it looked like a bonnet perched on top of the car. i saw one a few days ago that came from the factory. it looks like the fiberglass one was modeled after it. both of those remind me of the tops for miata's. they are just not quite the way the car is supposed to look. (IMHO)...


so i decided, with my vast experience as an accountant, that i would fab a hard top from a donor car. how hard could it be? my story starts with this...

[qikcpa]

the po turned a targa into a cab. he got bored with it and then i got it. it was all dismantled. i painted it in my driveway and drove it for 7 years like this...



she's been nothing but a good time but i was ready for a change. the likelyhood of me selling this car and then getting a coupe before my wife spent the cash was slim. after a month of looking i sourced this for $500 from a guy in north georgia - that i will never do business with again. long shameful story. but nevertheless i got what i needed....



the above roof clip is quite generous in the way it is cut. as you can see most roof clips are cut like this...


My car which after a few weekends of work was as ready as it would ever be to be part of such a project. i had transformed it to this (documented in another thread)



turns out getting the car to this point and acquiring the roof clip was the easy part.

[screenwriter-X]

It is remarkable how a 911 or a 356 suddenly becomes feminine in cabriolet form. Also remarkable how a 356 cab becomes masculine in Speedster trim, as does a Boxster in Spyder trim. I don't know of any other make of car that does that kind of thing.

[Joe Bob]

Ah, blow me....




Almost always won my class and had a TTOD.

[r_towle]

Please show us how you cut that roof to line up....that should be a tough cut to map out.

BTW, cabs are cool, everyone else is just jealous that they cant drive their cars till the warm weather passes them by....no AC in a coupe makes it unbearable.

Rich

[ivangene]

LOLZ!


no comments other than one for the AC remark

100 years ago when it was hot out, people weathered the heat....suck it up and weather it out!


I say that, but in Seattle this year out hottest day was 85 ish and we only had a handful of day that made it over 80 ALL YEAR!

[dipso]

I wish I had a cab.

[Gustyones]

It doesn't feel girly.... Maybe i need to rethink things..

[qikcpa]

a 100 years ago people died when they were like 40 years old and they considered it a long life. embrace technology. a/c is on my to do list.


first order of business was to brace the b pillar (i think thats what it is called). as i had no real way of holding the top i was planning on setting it on its side to do a lot of the work. i had a miniature I-beam shaped rod laying around that was just a few inches too long. so i figured it wouldnt be much of a sacrafice. (i store used 2x4 lumber too, i hate waste. i throw away nothing useful...old school. i got it from my dad. he's the same way) tacked it in place and it was ready to go.





i took every possible measurement i could think of that might be relevant.




having no idea what i was doing and not really knowing what the next step was going to be i took a lot of breaks and worked on other parts of the car. i bondoed the flares and came up with what i thought was a trick way to hang the rear bumper. so the rest of the car was like this...

[nesslar]

Poorly chosen Targa example, to say the least. Brown interior, likely standard SC seats, oddly colored wheels (6s and 7s at that), no chin spoiler yet has a tea tray on the rear (bad setup), sits way too high, Targa script isn't black, no mirror bras (they look great on red Carrera Targas), USA rear lenses, the dealer overlooked the faded jack hole plug, probably has a stock steering wheel.......some of the other cars look just fine, especially the coupes (gotta love that Euro Carrera, actually looks better with rear USA lenses I think). Targas are just too much fun in the sun with the lid off, assuming the whole car is tastefully done/set up). I actually think Cabs look better with the top up, just my opinion; black ones look the best. Redline in most any 911 ain't girly, especially second gear; growls nicely. My Wife gets real nervous, prefers not to even ride in mine, lol. So there... Oh, and compliments always, no matter where; easily 90% from guys...

[Jonesy78]

Originally Posted by Joe Bob

Are those custom graphics on the NBD car door?

[qikcpa]

joe bob,

thanks for the data point.

without a doubt your car is all rock & roll. she looks fast and agile. but not exactly what i want or think of when
i think fast porsche. as i said earlier to each his own.

a client of mine is a car dealer and he always tells me that "there is an as$ for every seat" You are certainly
helping prove that saying correct.

in white, with the tail in back, and if it had red accents, it would really remind me of this...

[tchanson]

The factory made a hard top for the Cab. It was tremendously pricey, at around $7K USD in '80's dollars as I recall.







Tim

[Josh D]

Originally Posted by qikcpa

joe bob,

thanks for the data point.

without a doubt your car is all rock & roll. she looks fast and agile. but not exactly what i want or think of when
i think fast porsche. as i said earlier to each his own.

a client of mine is a car dealer and he always tells me that "there is an as$ for every seat" You are certainly
helping prove that saying correct.

in white, with the tail in back, and if it had red accents, it would really remind me of this...

Thanks........Now I have to clean the coffee off my keyboard!!

[nesslar]

"Are those custom graphics on the NBD car door?" lol... now that's sassy.... and funny. Hang in there, JB... nice driving, BTW

[Joe Bob]

Running around a resort town with "cool" numbers in an old Porsche is like a flag to the cops. I have no desire to meet the men in blue with a written invitation.....bad enough I have to pay the Porsche Tax for parts.

Why invest time and energy when they come off at the end of the day?

[Helios59]

Originally Posted by tchanson

The factory made a hard top for the Cab. It was tremendously pricey, at around $7K USD in '80's dollars as I recall.







Tim

Ha ha, I actually have that Divert-A-Breeze! It works pretty well too, up to about 90 mph...then it starts to work its way off the seat. There can't be too many of them out there...it's a true 80s artifact.

This thread is hilarious!

[exc911ence]

Phbbt! Cabriolets aren't girl's cars, they're poser's cars!

[JeremyD]

And that is why you can buy a 911 in a coupe, targa or cabriolet version. (which I have been lucky enough to own one of each)

I usually had people call my old cabriolet a girls car - right up to the point that they gave me the point by.

[qikcpa]

nesslar:

pls don’t take offense. your car is hot. all porsches are. i like targa’s.
i’ve had targa’s at my house before. some of my best friends drive targa’s.

Most cars are one or the other (coupe or cab, feminine or brutish) it certainly a unique experience to have both in one. Its perfect for some, just not for me. Kinda like….