McCLARION (McLaren) convertible top

ASCMCLRN · Post by **ASCMCLRN** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:36 pm

Talk about spelling. McCLARION convertible top. Anyone still need a top?

See link below:

http://www.convertibletopguys.com/cgi-l ... gi?cat=809

Nick

87ASC · Post by **87ASC** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 6:45 pm

www.aabestco.com has them for $300 or $400 or so

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87ASC · Post by **87ASC** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:18 am

Here is a link to that:
http://www.aabestco.com/merchant.ihtml? ... 085&step=4

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:29 pm

Just F.Y.I. in case anyone cares....

None of these roofs are OEM exact. I have found the following on EVERY aftermarket roof:-

1.) The stitching thread is white (or very light grey). On OEMs the stitching thread is color-keyed to the roof.

2.) The pattern of the stitching thread is not the duplicate of the OEM, around the rear small windows. Worse, being white on a darker color the difference really stands out.

3.) For reasons unknown, they always make the rear two smaller windows larger than the OEM. They make them the same height as the center (big) window, when they should be not as high. They also make them wider. I believe that they made them by eyeballing a picture, rather than taking true dimensions, and making them "to size".

4.) Some colors are dead "ON" ~ others are not. Their Dark Blue is fine, but their Tan, has too much gray in it, and is less "bright". Their "Burgundy" or whatever they call it, is waaay far "off" from the McLaren's "Claret-Wine" roof, which has alot of plum in it, almost a magenta plum-red. Their Black is fine. They don't offer the White and I have not seen their Dark Brown to compare to ascMcLaren's.

Personally, if you are restoring, the roof will last you 5 years or more. For that, I'd suggest buying the REAL THING from Hank. He has all the colors!
The $$$ differance between one of these aftermarket ones & Hank's OEM divided by 5 years (minimum) is peanuts. If the differance is $400 divided by 5 years it's $80.00 @ year to have the correct piece. Isn't it worth it for your McLaren ?

tfs2121 · Post by **tfs2121** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:47 pm

sandy your such a salesman

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 6:14 pm

It's easy to be a salesman when you are correct and can prove it. It's far more difficult when you are lying

87ASC · Post by **87ASC** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:32 pm

Random thought. Since you know alot about how the orginals are supposed to be if you got the exact dimsensions and stiching patterns etc... maybe you could go into the buiness of selling McLaren tops. Never know how much market their is in that

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Post by **negusm** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:35 pm

87ASC wrote:Random thought. Since you know alot about how the orginals are supposed to be if you got the exact dimsensions and stiching patterns etc... maybe you could go into the buiness of selling McLaren tops. Never know how much market their is in that .

And piss of Hank?

-Mike

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:26 pm

....and that above is why I would not do that.

Regardless, you can't sell very many. How many are out there? 2,000 ? How many allready have replaced top ? 1/2 ? Say you could make $ 300 @ top ? $600,000 minus tooling costs, design costs, patterns & machines to manufacturer....... see... The cars are slowly dying, too. No more being made, no future market of any #s Inventory storage & costs.....shipping & insurance......

ASCMCLRN · Post by **ASCMCLRN** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 12:07 am

Sandy wrote:....and that above is why I would not do that.

Regardless, you can't sell very many. How many are out there? 2,000 ? How many allready have replaced top ? 1/2 ? Say you could make $ 300 @ top ? $600,000 minus tooling costs, design costs, patterns & machines to manufacturer....... see... The cars are slowly dying, too. No more being made, no future market of any #s Inventory storage & costs.....shipping & insurance......

Me personally I would love to make a hard top removeable. I am surprised they never did this for our cars in the first place.

Nick

87ASC · Post by **87ASC** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:10 am

Hank has the asc orginals. If he lowered the price to a resonable price of $400.00 he would probably sell more

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87ASC · Post by **87ASC** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:13 am

I am thinking about talking to the guy at smoothline see if he do some hardtops up. The only thing is that their would have to be alot of people that would buy one. He could make a limited production type hardtop or something

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Post by **negusm** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:37 am

87ASC wrote:Hank has the asc orginals. If he lowered the price to a resonable price of $400.00 he would probably sell more .

$400 is what Walmart would charge you if they sold them.

Now, I think a hardtop removable roof would be very cool.

-Mike

ASCMCLRN · Post by **ASCMCLRN** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:22 am

87ASC wrote:I am thinking about talking to the guy at smoothline see if he do some hardtops up. The only thing is that their would have to be alot of people that would buy one. He could make a limited production type hardtop or something .

Two ways it can be done. Either a fiberglass paintable top or a standard black possibly with clear roof much like CDC is doing for fixed roofs but ours is removeable. It latches into two front posts and back half screws into tonneau just as a soft top would in upright positions.

Nick

RARE-ASC · Post by **RARE-ASC** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 7:24 pm

87ASC wrote:Hank has the asc orginals. If he lowered the price to a resonable price of $400.00 he would probably sell more .

Personnaly if i were him i would ask for a premium just as he does there are not any more so i feel his price is justified.