Targa to coupe conversion

[gorskined]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

Good stuff, right person for the job, I'm looking forward to your progress.

While I like Targas, had an 84 for years that I loved, and appreciate the blocky look, I'm not a fan of widebody variants, they look a little too much high school detention doodle cars, whoever put that tail on your car spent some time in detention, clearly. Coupes are opposite end of the spectrum IMHO.

A wide body is love or hate. A wide body with sc trailing arms is my hot blond "perfect" love the look.

oh my God i hate the 3.8l tail, way over the top but it fits and the color matches perfect. currently looking for a 76 turbo tail classic clean look. when i mod the car the 3.8l tail will go. if i wasn't considering a mod i would have already changed it but for now its low on the list going to keep driving the enjoying car while looking for a donor.
once i get ever thing going to dive into it ..

[gorskined]

Originally Posted by MConn

Here's the picture of after the targa reinforcement is removed.



If you shop for floor mats you can see the difference.

Here's the templates I made -

i like the template idea. removes most of the guess work. Im assuming are they exact replicas of the original coupe openings prior to the cut ? do you have a picture of the front template ?

[Dpmulvan]

Pretty difficult to find a full roof clip at a reasonable price these days especially a G body. I used titanium and steel rods and 3m structural adhesive inside the a pillars before welding the outside.
Don’t cut into the rear quarter panels like I’ve seen some do. You can trim roof ( use a compass to transfer contour) so it sits perfectly onto top of targa rear window sill.

[wjdunham]

Here's another example, started life as a 1969 Targa. I paid $7K to have the roof professionally grafted on by a guy who does hot-rod roof chops here in the SF bay area. He did not modify the rear quarters, and we cut the A-pillar as high up as possible. Kept the original Targa doors and sourced all the windows and window trim, it bolted in with no issues. I kept all the Targa reinforcements, had to get creative with the rear quarter trim and parcel shelf.

I had done a lot of work on the Targa chassis stripping it to bare metal and fixing the rust when I first purchased it back in 1995, when the entire car cost less than a set of wheels does today. For me, it was a much less expensive way to get the car I really wanted to do a conversion than to sell the Targa and start over. The entire project took 5 years, the car now has a 3.4 Motronic engine, mag case 915 trans, Carrera front and rear suspension with 964 brakes and a bunch of Elephant Racing suspension components. It is a blast to drive.

[gorskined]

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

Pretty difficult to find a full roof clip at a reasonable price these days especially a G body. I used titanium and steel rods and 3m structural adhesive inside the a pillars before welding the outside.
Don’t cut into the rear quarter panels like I’ve seen some do. You can trim roof ( use a compass to transfer contour) so it sits perfectly onto top of targa rear window sill.

so you filled the a pillars with glue then inserted titanium rods? can you elaborate on this how long were the rods did they anchor any place or just floating in the glue in the a pillar ? extra rigidity for flexing or roll over protection because i do not want a roll bar . also a little confused as to not using the rear coupe window frames ( a the fender cut)? im very interested in this because most of the clips i see don't include the lower section of the window frame .

[Winter911]

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

Pretty difficult to find a full roof clip at a reasonable price these days especially a G body. I used titanium and steel rods and 3m structural adhesive inside the a pillars before welding the outside.
Don’t cut into the rear quarter panels like I’ve seen some do. You can trim roof ( use a compass to transfer contour) so it sits perfectly onto top of targa rear window sill.

I did exactly this... no need to cut the quarters. The inside of the roof lines up nicely with the quarter pinch welds to make it seamless.

You'll see it in my picture.
I paid $600 for my roof (+4 hour drive). It was cut high on the C pillar so I had to source the quarter window section from a pelican for $150.
B pillar and A pillars were all there.
You can still find them cheap, just rare. DC automotive wanted $10k when i called them end of last year just to give you an idea what to expect if you want a perfect roof.

[MConn]

Here's the windshield template I made -



Seems like I used 1/4" x 3/4" steel around the edge and 3/4" square tubing.

There was another thread where a guy with AMAZING talent made templates from 3/4" square bar.

[Dpmulvan]

Originally Posted by gorskined

so you filled the a pillars with glue then inserted titanium rods? can you elaborate on this how long were the rods did they anchor any place or just floating in the glue in the a pillar ? extra rigidity for flexing or roll over protection because i do not want a roll bar . also a little confused as to not using the rear coupe window frames ( a the fender cut)? im very interested in this because most of the clips i see don't include the lower section of the window frame .

Rods fit tightly inside A pillars there’s not much room inside. I used one steel and one titanium per side with some adhesive on each end. I did it because there’s not a lot of surface area to weld a pillars back together, more to avoid welds cracking than for any type of rollover protection. A pillars are not totally hollow there’s a series of folds inside for rigidity.

[Dpmulvan]

Originally Posted by gorskined

so you filled the a pillars with glue then inserted titanium rods? can you elaborate on this how long were the rods did they anchor any place or just floating in the glue in the a pillar ? extra rigidity for flexing or roll over protection because i do not want a roll bar . also a little confused as to not using the rear coupe window frames ( a the fender cut)? im very interested in this because most of the clips i see don't include the lower section of the window frame .

[Dpmulvan]

Originally Posted by gorskined

so you filled the a pillars with glue then inserted titanium rods? can you elaborate on this how long were the rods did they anchor any place or just floating in the glue in the a pillar ? extra rigidity for flexing or roll over protection because i do not want a roll bar . also a little confused as to not using the rear coupe window frames ( a the fender cut)? im very interested in this because most of the clips i see don't include the lower section of the window frame .

Some people aren’t thinking coupe conversion when they cut a roof clip. You want to find one with the B pillars and at least the bottom curve of the rear quarter windows and the bottom corners of rear window frame.