has ANYONE attempted this yet? I am taking it into deep consideration with my 8. I had a HS buddy who did it with his chevy s-10 by just cutting existing top off and installing the necessary hardware and seals to be able to snap on and off the original rooftop. I know there was one in a japanese autoshow a few years ago, but wondering what may all have to be considered in doing it with an existing hardtop+moonroof 8.

soooooooooooo, has ANYONE attempted it?

 

There was one that showed up in a parade in Japan a few years back. A pic or two were posted on the forum at the time so maybe a search will turn it up. Or perhaps someone will post one for you.

Probably not a simple cut and "paste" operation as you suggest since the two doors when closed contribute significantly to body integrety. Note that the rear door fastens very firmly to the top and to the bottom providing a B-pillar-like support. Without this feature, I think that body rigidity would suffer emensely to the point of being scarey. If you can figure a way around that, go for it.

BTW, I grew up in the Tawas area, which is kind of mid-Michigan.

 

yea...there was a similar thread last year. Someone was looking to make a carbon fiber roof to help with weight. In the end it was determined that CF couldn't provide enough support to make the car safe. I would think that making a hard top convertible would have the same limitation. You would need to provide some sort of roll cage like support on the edge of the roof and slide the middle out.

 

seriously, why the time and skrilla it would cost would be huge.

 

Here ya go:
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...vertible+japan

 

when i went to the mazda research panel for the zoom zoom magazine thing, there was a guy there who claimed that his buddy ran an auto customization shop. and, he boasted that he was having his 8 converted to a convertible. i don't know if he's a member of this board or not. but, he said he'd lose his rear seats and that the company would "buy him a new 8" if they botched the job. he was driving a bmw x5, so i dunno if he ever got his car finished or not.

 

my OP
I would like to go to the trouble of it because there is just no car like the 8. sure I could get a miata.. but why trade DOWN? I <3 my 8, but miss my 99 stang convertible time to time... trying to get best of both worlds

 

I would be worried about structural integrity. I think its the arch of the roof combined with the lower body that makes it such a stiff chassis. To ensure the safety of the suicide doors the engineers rely on the arc of the roof attached to the front/rear and lower floor for side impact protection. Maybe the lower section was stiff enough to begin with as a lot of auto designers will anticipate a convertible version later on. I'm no engineer, though just remember reading about this early in the development of the 8.

 

My plan is to add a rollbar that goes from drivers side to passenger side to add removed stability from converting to convertible (similar to the one seen in japan autoshow).

 

just use a sawzall

 

That makes sense then. Would you weld the rear door? I can't tell if the parade one had this done or if it still just closed over the roll bar that was attached to the floor. I wonder if anyone but Mazda execs/engineers got to drive that one-off form the parade to see what it felt like.

 

couldnt tell you if the rear doors were welded on that or not, but I wasnt planning to on mine. the roll bar would be placed between the 2 doors. I am going to contact a few custom shops in this area to see, and might even go to the extreme of getting a hold of WCC or GAS as I have seen them turn some crazy vehicles into convertibles.

 

shawzallz ftw

 

Start threadjack...

LOL, this reminds me, anyone see the Top Gear challenge a couple years ago where the gang has to convert a Renault minivan into a convertible then take it through various tests? That was some of the funniest **** I've seen.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lOIrEyAvot8&feature=related

...End threadjack

 

Man do it! I think it would be awesome as long as it doesn't take away from the drivability. I rode in my buddies convertible FC and it was so much fun.

 

I think the show car they had in the parade looked nice, and I like the idea of the convertible hard top 8. It would be nice to be able to fire off an E-Mail to mazda Engineers to see if they have any advice on the structural integrity of the car without the roof/B-Pillar door configuration before getting into a project like that. I wonder if MNAO or even Mazda Japan have an english speaking tech/engineer that would be willing to shoot the poop with you about it.

I have a feeling if it was easy to do Mazda would be selling a convertible version of the car. The suggestion that the roof/doors are significant and integral to the stability of the car makes sense to me.

I'll be interested to see and hear what you come up with.

 

^

I've sewn myself to the material

 

Its On Fire!

 

between the 2 doors? there is no space there. lol.

if you look at the rx8 vert pics, there are only 2 doors. the rollbar starts behind the front doors. where the back doors would be. approximately where the second roof brace is, in the above exploded picture of the rx8 frame. everything behind the rollbar is convertible roof, so unless they have side windows (like the mbz sl500) in the top, that makes for one gigantic blind spot.

making any car into a convertible isnt an easy process. but it is a lot easier to chop the top off of a 2 door civic than to do it for the rx8. for the price this will end up costing you, you might as well buy a used convertible.

at best you will spend $15,000. the amount of custom work here is insane. it will need custom hardware, custom cloth or sheet metal, and custom windows. but hey, the worst that can happen is that you have a strictly roadster rx8 if they cant make it work. sunshine only. at least it'll be a sweet roadster.

 

just emailed both WCC and GAS to see if its work they would be willing to attempt. hope to hear back and see how much it would run me.

 

Keep us posted as I'm curious. Hell of a project that would be sweet to see done.

 

I'd be surprised if it could be done for $15k.