60Patrol

I have been looking forward to seeing this as well.

I guess we'll never know,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Apologies to all who have been holding their breath for the update.

The good news is that I took my first ride under the new top yesterday and it looks and works great. The bad news is that it was yesterday and that there were a lot of trials, tribulations, dollars, fabrication, frustration, and a significant amount of blood, sweat, and tears between ordering in May and the first ride.

To focus on the positive: the quality, fit, and finish of the canvas top is first rate. The roll-up windows are great, there are 4 snap-flaps to secure the top to the crossbars, and the zippers, trim, and stitching all look like they will last. And the top slid nicely into the channels above the windshield and above/behind the doors. The packaging and shipping container also were great, especially the protective film on the plastic windows - everything arrived undamaged. And the paint-job of the metal arts was actually pretty good.

Almost everything else was a gong show. In addition to being very expensive, the shipping process from Colombia was a disaster. FarbriPartes was supposed to air-ship it to SFO for pick-up by me. Instead, the third-party shipper hired Avianca Cargo, which flew it to Miami and then (without telling me) subcontracted it to ForwardAir who trucked it to a warehouse in Oakland, where it sat for a couple weeks without a call or email to me. After a dozen fruitless phone calls to the shipper and then Avianca, I finally tracked it down and went to the warehouse, but ForwardAir wouldn't release it to me until I presented a completed customs form (which required a separate trip to US Customs at SFO - and $50) and paid ForwardAir another $150. At least they waived the $50/day storage fee - maybe they noticed the murderous look in my eyes.

But the big problem was that the over-door sheet metal pieces did not fit where they attach to the windshield frame. I spent a couple weeks trying to explain the problem to FabriPartes and requesting replacement pieces, but my Spanish is worse than his English and I finally gave up. I talked to a couple machine shops in the area and was told that there was no way to adapt or repair what I received and making two new pieces was going to be another $800-1000 so I resigned myself to driving with the top off.

After a couple months and a long discussion during a visit from my dad (Canadian farm-boy who can fix anything), we had the idea to create a Frankenpart using the existing (but hand-trimmed) over-door part attached to the upper-half of the Colombian part. It took a lot of dremel, jigsaw, drill, and fasteners, but I was able to mate the two parts into a fairly tidy assembly that works great. Attaching the new tubular frame required some drilling into the top deck of the bed and I had to relocate the posts for the fasteners that attach the bottom edge of the canvas to the outside of the bed, but that was relatively easy. Those parts were fine. It was actually a pretty fun New Year rainy-week project.

I will try to post some photos ASAP - if anyone can provide some guidance as to how to circumvent the size limits here, I would be very grateful.

ALSO - I now have an old and dirty canvas top and old set of frame rails available for anyone who wants them and a shipping container into which they fit. FabriParts also sent me the rail/channel that attaches the soft top to the window frame, which I did not need and also is available. PM me if you are interested and willing to pick them up or pay the shipping.

Thanks for the update. Been following this as I need a soft top for our 66. Interested in selling the old top (canvas only)? Might work on our patina rig, or be a template for a local shop to recreate. We have the metal top pieces.

FJ40alex wrote:Thanks for the update. Been following this as I need a soft top for our 66. Interested in selling the old top (canvas only)? Might work on our patina rig, or be a template for a local shop to recreate. We have the metal top pieces.

I’m more than willing to send the canvas to you, but I suspect it won’t fit if your metal frame is stock. I’m not sure of the cause, but the canvas top and supporting frame of my truck were level with the top of the windshield frame, rather than angled upward over the length of the doors and then level over the bed. Check out the photos earlier in this thread.
I can try to get the contact info for the Colombian canvas company, if you want.

soft60 wrote: I will try to post some photos ASAP - if anyone can provide some guidance as to how to circumvent the size limits here, I would be very grateful.

It depends on what device you are using. I have no problems using iPhone MacBook Pro, just select the pic from the Photos app and attach it. Here is another user's method: https://www.60patrol.com/forum/viewtopi ... ure#p52465

OUCH! I'm sorry to hear about all that *hassle* (there are better, less forum-friendly descriptors that apply here!). Over seas shipping scares me enough without a language barrier!
j

soft60 wrote:Apologies to all who have been holding their breath for the update.

The good news is that I took my first ride under the new top yesterday and it looks and works great. The bad news is that it was yesterday and that there were a lot of trials, tribulations, dollars, fabrication, frustration, and a significant amount of blood, sweat, and tears between ordering in May and the first ride.

To focus on the positive: the quality, fit, and finish of the canvas top is first rate. The roll-up windows are great, there are 4 snap-flaps to secure the top to the crossbars, and the zippers, trim, and stitching all look like they will last. And the top slid nicely into the channels above the windshield and above/behind the doors. The packaging and shipping container also were great, especially the protective film on the plastic windows - everything arrived undamaged. And the paint-job of the metal arts was actually pretty good.

Almost everything else was a gong show. In addition to being very expensive, the shipping process from Colombia was a disaster. FarbriPartes was supposed to air-ship it to SFO for pick-up by me. Instead, the third-party shipper hired Avianca Cargo, which flew it to Miami and then (without telling me) subcontracted it to ForwardAir who trucked it to a warehouse in Oakland, where it sat for a couple weeks without a call or email to me. After a dozen fruitless phone calls to the shipper and then Avianca, I finally tracked it down and went to the warehouse, but ForwardAir wouldn't release it to me until I presented a completed customs form (which required a separate trip to US Customs at SFO - and $50) and paid ForwardAir another $150. At least they waived the $50/day storage fee - maybe they noticed the murderous look in my eyes.

But the big problem was that the over-door sheet metal pieces did not fit where they attach to the windshield frame. I spent a couple weeks trying to explain the problem to FabriPartes and requesting replacement pieces, but my Spanish is worse than his English and I finally gave up. I talked to a couple machine shops in the area and was told that there was no way to adapt or repair what I received and making two new pieces was going to be another $800-1000 so I resigned myself to driving with the top off.

After a couple months and a long discussion during a visit from my dad (Canadian farm-boy who can fix anything), we had the idea to create a Frankenpart using the existing (but hand-trimmed) over-door part attached to the upper-half of the Colombian part. It took a lot of dremel, jigsaw, drill, and fasteners, but I was able to mate the two parts into a fairly tidy assembly that works great. Attaching the new tubular frame required some drilling into the top deck of the bed and I had to relocate the posts for the fasteners that attach the bottom edge of the canvas to the outside of the bed, but that was relatively easy. Those parts were fine. It was actually a pretty fun New Year rainy-week project.

I will try to post some photos ASAP - if anyone can provide some guidance as to how to circumvent the size limits here, I would be very grateful.

ALSO - I now have an old and dirty canvas top and old set of frame rails available for anyone who wants them and a shipping container into which they fit. FabriParts also sent me the rail/channel that attaches the soft top to the window frame, which I did not need and also is available. PM me if you are interested and willing to pick them up or pay the shipping.

RiverPatrol wrote:

soft60 wrote: I will try to post some photos ASAP - if anyone can provide some guidance as to how to circumvent the size limits here, I would be very grateful.

It depends on what device you are using. I have no problems using iPhone MacBook Pro, just select the pic from the Photos app and attach it. Here is another user's method: https://www.60patrol.com/forum/viewtopi ... ure#p52465

I keep exceeding the size limit when selecting directly from my phone - do you have any tips/advice on decreasing the size before posting?

Here are some photos of my ordeal. First, the good news - photos of the top installed or being installed.

And now the "challenges". The primary issue was that the new over-window sheetmetal parts did not fit at the junction to the windshield frame. I contemplated trimming the front-portion, but there was not enough wide in the flange to encompass one of the mounting-screw holes. So I used the (butchered) original pieces and the top half of the new pieces held together by three screws to form a new Frankenpart.