A Minnesota farmer is auctioning off his large collection of convertibles. I'd love to have one of these cars but am not in a position to buy one right now. After I retire, all bets are off.

I've had three convertibles in my life. The first was a 1950 Ford - plum colored with a white tuck and roll interior. I think my folks paid $100 for it in the early 1960's.

The second was a much nicer car. Mom got tired of driving station wagons and came home with a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. HUGE car, twin rear antennas, factory reverb, bucket seats. Black/black. I took my drivers test in that car. Perfect for drives along the coast.

The third I bought myself. I was commuting 40 miles a day in a 4 wheel drive pickup that got 8 MPG. A set of tires was going to cost me $800 and I bought a 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente convertible for about half of that.

Nice car. Originally from Lorain, OH (where we are looking to retire), it had quite a bit of rust by CA standards. Being as I intended to drive it in to the ground I didn't much care. Red/red with a white top. Bucket seats. Original top was rotted and blew off on the freeway in during the first two weeks of ownership. Other than that, reliable as a claw hammer.

Best story about that car was that the neighbor's kid hit it backing out of the driveway and damaged the front end. His insurance totaled the car and paid me $600. I bought a junkyard front end for $75 and installed it in about two hours. Drove it for two more years and still made money on it.

Convertible stories, anyone?

Not my story but my dad’s. In 1978 my dad drove a soft top (sorry - I know nothing else about the car!). He parked it where he met the commuter van to go to work. The great blizzard of 78 started a couple hours later, and the guys who worked at the Chrysler plant were stuck there for three days. When my dad finally got back to the car, he opened the door and it was completely full of snow. It had been blown in though the cracks around the soft roof. You could see the exact imprint of the door panel in the packed snow inside the car. He dug a hole in the driver’s side so he could sit down and drove it home with the rest of the car still packed full.

quote:

Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:
Not my story but my dad’s. In 1978 my dad drove a soft top (sorry - I know nothing else about the car!). He parked it where he met the commuter van to go to work. The great blizzard of 78 started a couple hours later, and the guys who worked at the Chrysler plan were stuck there for three days. When my dad finally got back to the car, he opened the door and it was completely full of snow. It had been blown in though the cracks around the soft roof. You could see the exact imprint of the door panel in the packed snow inside the car. He dug a hole in the driver’s side so he could sit down and drove it home with the rest of the car still packed full.

I’ve never owned a convertible but I do currently own a car with a T-bar roof which are also called T-Tops, and roof hatches. I know, it’s not the same thing as a convertible roof car but they are removable roof panels to allow for roof less driving just like a convertible.

I can fill this whole screen up talking about them so I’ll try to hold it down. I’ve owned this Nissan 300ZX since 1984 when I bought it new having just graduated from college. It still looks new and I get offers for it.

Because you've owned convertibles before, I'm probably not saying anything that you don't already know. T-tops and convertibles are more of a liability than an asset if you ask me. I don’t have too many good things to say about them so I may appear to be negative about them. They’re an expensive option on a new car. When it comes time to sell it, it’ll be harder to sell because most people don’t want a convertible or a T-bar roof. Leaking and rattling are the two most common problems with T-tops. Other problems include glass breakage and less structural rigidity. In the event of a rollover accident, glass tops and a convertible roof are not going to help save you. Rollovers happen more than you think. It happened to a coworker of mine when she was driving on an expressway. Good thing she was driving a hard top. Thieves and vandals like to slash convertibles and steal T-tops. 300ZX T-tops use a sliding bolt to lock the T-tops to the car so theft is not a problem.

If you live in sunny Southern California like you do or Hawaii, they’re great but anywhere else and you’re not going to be driving with the top down too much. Don’t think for even a minute that a convertible roof or T-tops can take the place of air conditioning. On the hot and humid days, you’re going to have the roof up and the air conditioning on. If you have some place to go and you’re wearing nice clothes, you don’t want to arrive there all hot and sweaty. It’s on the cooler days on longer jaunts that I take the T-tops off. Short trips of a few miles and it’s not worth the effort because of the time it takes to unlock both T-tops, store them in the hatch and then repeat the process in reverse when I park the car.

I'll venture to say that most people who buy a car with T-tops don't want them on their next car.

You may have a hard time finding convertible roof hardware for the car if something goes wrong with it.

In the seventies, I had a VW bug convertible. Very fun car.

Also had a 1960 baby blue Thunderbird convertible, passed down from my grandmother.

Jf

quote:

Originally posted by Jack Frost:
Also had a 1960 baby blue Thunderbird convertible, passed down from my grandmother.

Jf

Did yours have the cool factory tonneau cover for when the top was down?

1977 MGB. It was maroon; I really wanted British racing green but didn't come across a good one at the time we were shopping for one.

Great fun to drive (when it was running). Mr wtg had a tweed cap that he wore when he was driving it. He looked very British.

Agree with Q-L about the challenges of driving a convertible in Chicago. I can remember driving in the autumn with the top down, windows up, and the heater on full blast.

Ours had a black interior, so taking it out on a hot sunny day was a nightmare.

It's a sweet English roadster, best suited to drive in the coolish overcast English countryside. We kept it for a few years and then sold it.

Fun topic!

My first car was a black Rambler to get back and forth to college. Happy to have it, but not very exciting...and it had spiders inside!

And then...

I got a white Skylark convertible. With red interior! Now THAT was a fun car! I remember going down a semi hilly highway with the top down and my hair blowing in the breeze, feeling on top of the world...still recall the excitement!

My favorite car...

Donate by midnight tonight and you get a chance to win the Car Talk brother, the late Tom Magliozzi's last car!

A 1993 Miata convertible.

That's too funny, BL.

But it's also tempting....I drove a Miata a few times and it was lots of fun....

I married a man with a convertible.

:swoon:

It is not currently operational, but some minor tweaking would get it in shape to take me for rides when the weather gets nicer....

Not a single MOPAR among them. What a philistine.

I want that 54 Ford Sunliner though. I've had two - a 66 Mustang and a 77 GB. Both great fun. We are looking for one now as a second car for fun.

1982 Fiat X1/9 Bertone. This model but silver with red leather interior.



Bought it in college when I got my internship. Sold it when I moved to Chicago knowing it was impractical there.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
Not a single MOPAR among them. What a philistine.

Not so! There is a 70 Charger R/T in the mix!

And it's purple!

Cool, but not a ragtop.