Sunburst-Kid

Thanks a Million for finding that. I just ordered one from Northern. Really wanted to start this today, but you know how that goes...

You've don't a great job with this write-up. Many thanks in advance.

Thorvald

Well since I'm headed off to Aldershot / Gagetown all summer long for Army Courses, I had to do something with the hardtop. Thanks to this thread it was a great start! Most of the parts I found from Home Hardware, The Fastening House & Princess Auto. Home Depot Canada was useless :-)

I was about to buy a brake winch and pulleys from Princess Auto but they had a nice electric hoist on for $84. The manually brake winch was well over $100... so it was a good deal! I actually ended up moving the hoist higher than the joists so I could tuck the top right against the joists (Pics don't show this). The winch was a great deal since it already had a locking hook, pulley, aircraft cable and hangs from a piece of unistrut with the included brackets.

Little trick here, I used some Silicone spray lube to get the vinyl tubing around the U bolt completely without cutting it. Now the U-Bolt's are completely covered.

Was a pretty simple project, thanks for the great design! Just took a little while to find all the parts. Only issue I really have is the winch is a tad fast so I might open it up and see about slowing it down.

Electric Hoist - Princess Auto
UniStrut - Fastening House
4 Hole T Gusset plate - Fastening House
Spring Clips and bolts - Fastening House
Square Washers - Fastening House
Chain - Home Hardware
U Bolts & Eye Bolts & other Chain bits - Home Hardware
Vinyl Tubing - Home Hardware
Pipe Covering - Home Hardware
Wood - Lying around the house :-)
Beer - My Fridge

YellowToy

Thorvald,
the easiest way to slow the winch speed is install a pulley on the "hook side" like you would a snatch block wheb winching. that will cut the lift speed in half.

tunes

I have been thinking about how to continue to use mine now that I have a lift and 37s on it. I dont have the clearance to raise the top at all.

If I air down I might lower the top onto the cradle with it as high as it will go

Anyway, I have a finished ceiling, so I will cut a hole and brace the pulley above the joists, and another one and pulley above my hand crank hoist. The cable will then run above the joists.
That should allow me to raise the cradle all the way flush with the ceiling which is 6 or 7 inches higher than I can get it now.
I'll post pics when I can get in there to mod the lift (wife has the garage full of junlk getting ready for yard sale (I thought the Jeep would even fit into the garage with the 37s, glad i was wrong about that )

YellowToy

tunes,

if you want a real clean look, you can cut the houle to install your pulley, then route the cable in the ceiling cavity to a similar pulley at the wall above the winch.

tunes

Ummmm,

I think you are saying the same thing I did.
The cable running above the ceiling, above the joists out of sight, then coming back down thru another hole above the winch/crank, or am I not understanding what you mean ?

Hoovis

Thanks everyone for the great thread and great ideas. I needed to make mine a touch more complicated because I have a bunch of stuff stored in that corner of my garage. So I mounted the winch on door track and sliders so that I can lift it up and then slide it back to the platform.

I was also thinking I would go with a hand crank but found the 440 pound winch for $75 at Harbor Freight tools. This was probably cheaper than buying the braking hand crank and several pulleys I would have needed. Not to mention this is a whole lot easier, as I can simply guide the hard top with my free hand as I push the button to hoist/drop with the other hand.

So my set-up involves hoisting the hard top up, and then sliding the top back to the platform, rather than just hoisting it straight up. With all the hardware, wood, chains, hoist, and door track, it cost me about $220 total. (The tennis balls are simply to prevent any scratches as the bolts that came with the door track were rather long and I didn't want to track down other suitable bolts.)

You can see that the cat approves of his new perch. The downside, is that I need to hoist up the platform in order to use the pinball machine, so I won't be playing any pinball while the hard top is stored.

Thanks again to everyone for the great ideas. I found a screaming deal on a hard top a couple weeks ago, and can now remove it and the doors in about 15 minutes.

ericg

There's a ton of information in this thread. Thanks to all who contributed.
I've been wanting to do this project for over a year, and finally got the time and $$ to do it.
I've got everthing I need, including an electric hoist from Harbor Freight for $75, I just cannot find the square 3"x7.5" U bolts. maybe I'm looking in the wrong dept.?

Thanks

Hoovis

ericg, can't help you on the u-hooks. Sorry that nobody has responded. I am hoisting it up on some motorcycle tie downs. I only need to lift it about 6 inches for about 60 seconds, and given my set-up (quickly placing it on a platform), I did not go with the "t-bar" or similar.

That being said, and just as an FYI, because I am not able to hoist the top straight up (and need to guide it a bit with my hand for a foot or two), I will point out that after a few times doing so, while my set up works great, the front "feet" or "bumpers" do scratch the top of the sides of the tub a bit. So going forward, I'm placing a towel under the "front bumper" thing that fits into the little hole in the front before hoisting it up. Again, mine needs to slide back a bit due to the ceiling lights, so this isn't likely an issue for most, but thought I'd mention it. Not a big deal, but if you can't hoist yours straight up like mine cannot, due to the garage space, put a towel under this front bumper to prevent any small scrathes on the upper sides of the tub.

Since I am hoisting then sliding on door rails up top, it want to slide back a foot or so first, so if you need to run a similar set-up, just put a towel under the sides and there is no more scratching. FYI.

Thorvald

I found them at the local home hardware in the rope isle. They were with the eye bolts.

I've also seen them at Canadian Tire in the car parts isle for "leaf springs", a local car parts store may have in their suspension/spring section.

Cheers
Tim