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Fumes guide to hardtop deconstruction 101.

chevyfumes

chevyfumes

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I know what you clowns are thinking so first off let me say :flipoff13:
I don't come in here too much but I do still have a Blazer and I do sometimes drive it. (now more so, hint in pic 1) I also have Tops. And thanks to my goats:haha:I now have some busted tops.
So I figured some of you might like to see what one looks like after dissection with a bit of explanation as to exactly how I got there.:thumb:

[Autopsy photoT1]
I'll start with one of my half tops

t1.JPG

t2.JPG
 
Windows out first, pop the clip and here's where you want your eyewear because as you start to pull the plastic strip the center of it is so brittle it starts spraying shards of plastic shrapnel into your face.


I noticed if you can get a lead of rope in the inner top part of the rubber, you have some good leverage to get it started, then I put out a luxurious hillbilly bedroll and promptly booted the window out from inside, your findings may very.:pimp:

t3.JPG
 
I'm gonna have to pad this write up like the whore I am. I'm having trouble managing attachments and it doesn't help that my computating device is flipping the pics upside down and right or left and I can't tell until I post it, then back to editing an attachment I can't see.
After removing all the weather stripping and drilling out all of the pop rivets I began.
So this is all I had time to do tonight,I used an air chisel and carefully split the panels which are glued pretty well. It is the passenger side front inner section.

t4.JPG
 
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Another pic of the same, as you can see I'm using a Russian hillbilly method of shade tree mechanicing only this is super smarticle Merican hillbilly, I used a wheel barrel instead of 2X4.

t5.JPG
 
That would just be horrific... On the bright side, i would probably drink a good amount of beer in the process!
 
I may be missing the obvious ( I often do ), but why would one want to spend time to disassemble their top? :dunno::dunno::dunno::confused::confused:
 
73k5blazer said:
I may be missing the obvious ( I often do ), but why would one want to spend time to disassemble their top? :dunno::dunno::dunno::confused::confused:
Click to expand...

I thought it may be benofficial to see the inner workings and how their held together I case of needed repair. I will also dissect a full topper next. I have one that's pretty beat up. I also have two others, one of which came with my rig and is in need of repair due to the rear corners coming loose.
 
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Do a 90,91. I want to see what's really holding those seat belt brackets in!!!

I repaired my '73 full top rear corners. Lag bolted some strap steel to it, fiberglass over the top.
 
73k5blazer said:
Do a 90,91. I want to see what's really holding those seat belt brackets in!!!

I repaired my '73 full top rear corners. Lag bolted some strap steel to it, fiberglass over the top.
Click to expand...
This is a 86ish I believe and I think it's the newest one I have.
Not sure what year exactly the 2nd gen full topper will be because out of the 3 years there are two types and I haven't discovered what year they changed.
 
This is all I could manage tonight, these two peices along with the top are all grooved together at the corner and glued to the metal frame and riveted. So it was a bit challenging to get them to all come apart and stay in one peice.
Pass rear corner.

t13.JPG
 
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