E-type hard top
Discussion
Well, it's been a long day and I am sitting here ruminating about E-type hard tops. I'm not talking the standard fare ones but the two GT versions that were made by Ashley and Williams and Pritchard. Neither exist as far as I know, but I am wondering if there might still be a market for them today. So here's a photo of the W & P one first:-
The Ashley one was longer and involved taking off the boot lid to enlarge luggage space. In the day the W & P one was £172, and standard E-type hard tops are selling for at least £5,000, so refabricating these would be expensive. But would people buy them I wonder? What do you think?
The Ashley one was longer and involved taking off the boot lid to enlarge luggage space. In the day the W & P one was £172, and standard E-type hard tops are selling for at least £5,000, so refabricating these would be expensive. But would people buy them I wonder? What do you think?
I'm sure you'd sell some because some people will want to have one, the Ashley one looks good, and period accessories are exciting and its an opportunity to be different at the JDC meeting.
I've never owned an E Type but I have had lots of draughty, slightly leaky cars improved with the addition of a hard top and therefore be much better for winter use. Although my E30 BMWs didn't leak and weren't draughty, the hard top still improved them by making them quieter at speed. Once. when late for a friend's wedding I used an automated car wash with the E30 and hard top and not a drop came in. So hard tops can be good.
But hard tops are difficult to get on and off, being big and awkward, without scratching the car. So you put them on for the winter and take them off for the summer. They need to be stored somewhere when not fitted. They can mark the paint where they rest.
So they must be of limited use on an e type, which are now used purely for recreation. Not many are used in the winter, I'd guess. And if there was a lovely crisp early spring morning you'd curse the hard top if you fancied a drive, or the fact that you need someone to help you lift it off.
So I'm sure they'd sell, but I'm not sure they'd get used!
I've never owned an E Type but I have had lots of draughty, slightly leaky cars improved with the addition of a hard top and therefore be much better for winter use. Although my E30 BMWs didn't leak and weren't draughty, the hard top still improved them by making them quieter at speed. Once. when late for a friend's wedding I used an automated car wash with the E30 and hard top and not a drop came in. So hard tops can be good.
But hard tops are difficult to get on and off, being big and awkward, without scratching the car. So you put them on for the winter and take them off for the summer. They need to be stored somewhere when not fitted. They can mark the paint where they rest.
So they must be of limited use on an e type, which are now used purely for recreation. Not many are used in the winter, I'd guess. And if there was a lovely crisp early spring morning you'd curse the hard top if you fancied a drive, or the fact that you need someone to help you lift it off.
So I'm sure they'd sell, but I'm not sure they'd get used!
I can only ever recall seeing one E Type with one of these hard tops fitted to it, in Woodford Green in the mid 70s. I like it and if I still owned an E and had the £ spare, then yes, if well made and finished with a nice white head lining, I would definitely buy one.
Period options are a lovely thing to have.
And to think that I paid £450 for a nice Series 1 factory hard top in 2007 and then sold it and my 2 owner 67 Roadster for £7,200 to a knob of a Swiss buyer, back in Sept 08 when I was ill.....
Period options are a lovely thing to have.
And to think that I paid £450 for a nice Series 1 factory hard top in 2007 and then sold it and my 2 owner 67 Roadster for £7,200 to a knob of a Swiss buyer, back in Sept 08 when I was ill.....
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