VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood 38 Cabriolet top fasteners

On the top and the boot what kind of fasteners were used? Were they snaps or twist tabs? I think mine had both but I have decided that the top had been replaced. My 25 Touring has the twist type tabs and I think that is what I had a few of on my 38. I'm not even close to needing some but if they are hard to find I need to start looking. I don't even know if they had snaps back then. Here are some pictures of what I call twist tabs.

I was looking for those as well. I think they are Burco, check this site out;

https://www.restorationspecialties.com/assets/pdfs/page_177.pdf


Dave

Thank you Dave those are what I think I might need. Now I juist need to know what the true fasteners were. Thank you for your fast response.

As a point of reference my 41 uses both styles, maybe the 38 is similar. The inside of the wooden rear bow has the twist style to hold up the rear window while the boot uses snaps. The edge of the top where it meets the quarter panel does not use either. The bottom edge of the canvas has an inside flap with a stiff insert that goes under a piece of trim on top of the quarter panel.

minetto, do you have a picture of your 41's top?

I have a 38 Holden body Roadster so this may not apply. They used a piece of square channel with an opening. The channel was opened and then it was rammed full of tarred rope and then squeezed shut. This was than spot welded onto the car body. The trailing edge of the top was then nailed into place. The nails hit bottom and bent so it was all held into place. A piece of Hidem Banding was nailed down to tidy it all up. Of course in time the rope rotted out. Anyway most people now just use Lift the Dot fasteners which is fine for an older car but is not great for a 38. I have a double layer on the tail. The inner holds the Lift the Dots and then the outer comes down to conceal them. It has been some time since I have posted images so I will try later. I did take quite a few photos.Interesting to see how different solutions were arrived at.

Again, I'll preface these pictures are for a 1941 cabriolet and may not be applicable to 1938. If anyone thinks it may be better to move these pictures separate thread let me know or please do so.


Side view of top with no snaps over the quarter panels however the rear edges of the canvas, rear window, padding, etc. are tacked to the strip mentioned earlier. After the hidem is installed, male snaps are installed across the back to secure the boot only.


The tacking strip is riveted to the body above the deck lid. Just the edge is shown in this picture.


View showing boot snaps along the rear but no snaps over quarter panel. The boot also has the same ridged edge as the top.


Note the chrome strips fastened to the top of the quarter panel. The strips are not tight to the body and the ridged flap in the canvas engages under them. This ridged edge is released prior to lowering the top. The three holes showing should have been filled prior to chrome plating. They were for snaps on an aftermarket top that did not have the ridged flaps. If you look close on the inside you can see the twist style fasteners holding up the rear window curtain. At this point in the installation the metal framed window had yet to be installed.

Minetto, you have a beautiful car. It looks like to me that Chevrolet has improved their engineering on the tops. I will do some studying to see if mine is similar. Thank you for the great pictures.

John