Topic: Failure point of Sawzall convertibles?
Of all the car nutjobs on the internet, this seems the most likely gathering to get a decent answer to a question that's been bugging me for too long.
Back in January, I bought a convertible. A 1992 Chrysler LeBaron, to be exact. It's the first convertible I've ever owned, and it's been a ton of fun so far.
There are a lot of rattles, squeaks, etc. The body twists a bit. The convertible top leaks at the edges, and more water gets in than I think reasonably should.
Not that any of this bothers me too much - for the amount of money I have into it, I can't complain.
It's started me thinking about Sawzall convertibles - "convertibles" made by cutting off the roof of a car.
I'm guessing that they'd have similar handling characteristics to the car that I have now - creaks, disconcerting body twist, etc, and that they'd let water in like a sieve. In other words, why not make one? It'd be 90% of the fun of convertible ownership, without all those expensive convertible specific parts.
The idea of a minivan made into a convertible sounds especially appealing - it'd be fun and you could haul stuff, too.
The thing that worries me is that I've seen far more Sawzall convertibles at the junkyard than I've ever seen on the road. This led me to wonder what causes them to end up at the junkyard. I've got four basic theories:
1. People only do this to cars that are close to death anyway.
2. Because of the lack of a functional top, water gets in and damages the electronics, rendering them inoperable.
3. The loss of structural rigidity causes damage to various mechanical and/or electronic systems.
4. The spouse said, in no uncertain terms, to get that POS out of the driveway.
What has your experience been?
MR2 looked nice, but was no fun because your average Joe thought it came from the factory that way. The windshield rake caused wicked wind buffeting too - I should have cut down the windshield a bit and tilted it up some. The VW drew attention everywhere - people loved that thing for some reason (a Rabbit). Maybe because I welded all 4 doors shut, then cut the sides down, with a 4" steel cap over the whole thing, welded the hatch to the body, but removed the glass so the "C" pillar looked like a picnic basket handle... By the way, I drove in the rain many times. Anything over 20mph, there was no fear of getting wet, but you really need to time those stoplights! - never had any electrical issues.
