don't be a hater! Just because I have the imagination to do something different. It's my car and my hardtop. I can do what I want.

 

You can borrow my sawsall. Never tried it on CF though. I recently salvaged an F-18, and that dry carbon is pretty dangerous stuff once it's been structurally compromised. It'll cut into lifting straps, flesh, all kinds of stuff. Maybe a body saw with a diamond blade would be the best way to cut it.

 

Do I need a mask? And I've tried cutting CF before with the wrong blades and the cuts aren't clean. Any advice before cutting? Should it be wet?

 

I was just looking at it online, I think that's a fully impregnated carbon rather than dry carbon, so it should be fairly easy to cut if you just go slow. Fine tooth blade , high-speed body saw should do the trick.

 

Tell you what, Willie, make sure you have your hard top on during WTD and we'll cut the hole out for you Thursday night after you come back from Hooters.

 

You still haven't figured out cost on parts for S2000s yet have you..

$2500 for CF HT?

More like $6500





If you are going this route, have you looked at maybe using the top-down button to retract the sunroof?

 

I've got a roll of some fiberglass thats been sitting out back for a while, but it should be fine... and i have some boat resin... we should totally do it!

 

Do you have the measurements? An electric retractable would be cool, but I don't think you have enough length fwd-aft to put an electric slider in there. There an E36 full assembly with motor on my local craiglist for $120. I'll pick it up for you if you want.

 

I would use a high RPM dremel with one of those larger cutting wheels.

I actually helped a friend do this to a knock off mooncraft top last year.

we found the larger saws were too disruptive and loose to get a good cut

he went through a tube of black silicon to make the seams "perfect" but it looks great and only leaks in one spot and only during spray washes and or torrential down pours.

A high end mod for a high end driver.....dont give up the star gazing!!!!!!!

Call me if you need help. I got a steady hand.

RoB

PS... we can rig up a motorized version as well there is plenty of room between the layers for wiring

 

This is so a great idea.

I am adding a Dragonfly to my stable of bikes, and I was talking about this to the guy who built my Tetra-Pro bike, Craig Calfee. (This is a little bit of an aside, but he custom built Greg Lemond's carbon fiber framed bikes for Lemond's Tour de France races.)

I have known him for years, and he is a very good friend of mine. He just got a VW Eos 2.0 T. He is fascinated by the idea of a convertible with a moonroof. He is the guy who also builds Bamboo-framed racing bikes. His company's web-page is www.calfeedesign.com. Just talking to him is cool because he is so full of ideas.

He suggested that, to prevent any flex, you install a series of high modulus carbon fiber cross beams running laterally from one side of the roof to the other. This is the carbon fiber in the Dragonfly. What he had in mind was sort of a cross-hatched plan with two lateral support beams and two intersecting longitudinal beams, similar to a lattice pattern, with enough room in the center to allow for the sun-roof cut-out. His idea was to keep weight as low as possible. You also don't want to increase the center of gravity so he felt that the best thing to do would be to forego any sort of mechanical device to open and close the moon-roof as this would increase the cost, complexity and weight.

He suggested that you have a simple manual latching mechanism to remove a center transparent portion of the sun-roof from the roof. He is very much into the project and might even be willing to lend some technical expertise. He had a great idea of doing a thin carbon fiber headliner which he could custom cut and epoxy to the interior of the Mugen hardtop. He ventured to suggest that the CF headliner might even make the hardtop stiffer even after the removal of the center section.