Royce has just written a really first rate step by step article, with photos, of installing a replacement top on your Model T. If your even remotely thinking of trying to install your own top this article is a must read.
Here's the link:
https://modeltfordfix.com/installing-a-replacement-top-on-your-model-t/
What a great article. That would have been really helpfull when I done mine. Hopefully that will give others the courage to do their own top.
Thanks Jay for posting link and Royce for all the hard work to help others.
Good info and good timing for me. It looks like I will be installing my top soon. But first I need to install the rear seat back cover.
Very nice to see all the steps well photographed. Wish it was a runabout but I guess most of it is the same. Also the trim would be different in a later T. I was told to hold off installing a top on my T until warmer weather so that it would tighten in the cooler months.
Great timing. I just tore down my top to replace it. I have ok bows and was wondering how to fill all the old tack holes. Thank you Jay for posting it and thank you Royce for the article.
I made a new top for my '13 runabout from scratch, and no one showed me how to do it!
Royce did a great job on his instruction thread on his website. About the best I've seen.
I would like a little more detail on wrapping the bows, especially the front one with the flap to close the gap between the top and the windshield frame.
I partially unwrapped one of the bows for my '21 Touring. There are no holes where staples or tacks have been. Only the ones where the current fasteners are. I guess that the bows have the original wrapping on them. I won't have many holes to glue toothpicks into.
In the "for what it is worth" department. I happened across this article myself last night.
I can say that it looks like it was very good. But how good? I cannot say. My internet connection is technically a DSL line. I often refer to it as a "barely a DSL". It is basically the best I can get where I currently live.
So many people are so sold on "better" websites. Many here complain of our archaic format. But I can see almost all threads on this site in their entirety, including most of the longest threads, some with dozens of pictures. I do like much of what Royce is doing on his site. And, several sites using the basic format that he is using do seem to mostly work for me. However, several of the articles he has posted so far, I cannot see all the pictures. I wanted to read the entire top installation article, and see all the pictures. But less than ten pictures loaded before the download crashed, and I did allow a few minutes for it. And, frankly, reading the comments, without seeing the pictures, doesn't really work.
Maybe some day I can read, and see, the rest of it.
For whatever it is worth.
I am still trying to get up enough courage to start shooting some staples.
Here's what I have to work with. Not shown are the main top panel and the rear piece, with the windows in it. First are two long strips, or straps that staple to all the bows to hold them the right distance apart?
I have about 70 feet of this welting. OK there.
Three long pieces with a taper cut on one end. Three?
The front bow wrap with the windshield flap?Wrap for the other bows?