Jeff,
When I got my TR4 a few years ago, I didn't even know there WERE surrey
tops. Then I saw one in a Kas Kastner article and loved the coupe look.
Somewhere else along the way, I saw a picture of one with the center
section out and it looked very exotic to me.
So I had to have one.
After a few months of people stifling laughs when I asked them where I
could find one, I found out they were moving in the direction of
unobtanium. Or Britan. Amazing how many of the dry Brit cars
have headed back across the pond after a 30-year visit to the US.
So I too had the idea that I'd be able to take the whole top off (
including rear section ) in short order to suit my needs.
This is not the case.
If your car is originally a soft-top car like mine, you first have to
remove the top frame, and then the aluminum surround with all the
lift-the-dot studs for the soft top to expose the holes in the body where
the surrey top bolts down. Unlike an MG hardtop, the TR surrey bolts down
with around 10 bolts set into the rear surrey top frame. To get to the
nuts, you have to remove the side panels behind the seat as well as the
panel covering the gas tank.
Some contortion is required for some of the nuts.
It's not complicated, but it's time consuming. You're not going to take
the rear section on and off 'real quick.'
Driving with the surrey top center section off is interesting. The rear
section is VERY well designed in that it is practically invisible to the
driver due to the wrap-around design of the glass section. You can't see
it from the stock rear-view mirror. You still get lots of wind, but not
too much at highway speeds. This was something of an issue without the
top, as the wind very nearly whips the hair out of my head. I'm starting
to worry about that. The rear section prevents a lot of the turbulence and
reduces wind noise considerably, but you don't feel like you're in a coupe
with a sunroof by any stretch.
With the hard center-section in place, the car does look and feel like a
coupe. Headroom is far greater than anticipated because of the large arch
in the top. And again, you have a totally different looking car than when
the car is in 'targa mode.'
Most people do not realize the top is removeable. Of course, most people
don't realize it's a Triumph....or even British for that matter.
The hard center section takes 5 minutes or so to remove, as it's bolted on
with 4 bolts. I try to do this gingeryly, as I don't want to strip any of
the 40-year-old threads in the hard top.
I drove around most of the summer with the hard top on for protection from
the sun. ( I'm very fair-skinned ) Now I have it off for the mild Fall
weather we have here.
I really dig my surrey. It cost me $1000, (ouch) and took a year to find,
but it and the overdrive make the car very drivable.
-jeffrey
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