Hello friends - been awhile since I was on the site but my over the winter front end rebuild and repainting are going well and I am about 10 days from getting "rucruzn" back on the road.  I am wondering if any of you have any installation knowledge about a "t-top" carrier that was sold as an option for the 1980 model.  Supposedly this option allows one to carry the t-tops on the outside of the car while travelling.  I  bought this off of one of the vette sites a few months ago and I have since been to 3 vette restoration shops (one of which is owned by the fellow who was the vette body man at a large Michigan Chevrolet dealership in the '70's and '80's") and none of these shops are willing to approach the installation of this item because #1 they nevert heard of it before" and #2 it requires drilling into the body behind the rear window.  This "option" wasn't listed in any of the brochures for that year, I can't find it any of the restoration manuals or assembly guides either.  Iy is not that these shops aren't willing to "try" but without prior knowledge of how this is supposed to work or look they want me to accept the responsibility for the damage to my custom paint if it is done wrong.  All of this has me a little shook up that I actually bought this thing but I am hoping that if any of you know anything about this you can route me to a source or a contact for information on the installation of this item.  Thank you

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Ken - C3VR Lifetime Member #79

Dennis(dnv) has one, I think, and I also think Mike(mkapp7879) may have the installation instructions. I know there was a thread on this carrier a while back, and there was some really good info posted. I'll look and see can I locate it...

Here's one   (still looking...)Adams' Apple2009-04-25 10:58:37

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Joel Adams
C3VR Lifetime Member #56    
My Link


(click for Texas-sized view!)             NCRS

"Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comforting to cry in a CORVETTE than in a Kia"

I've got the T-Top mount on mine (see back of car in pic) but mine came with the option already installed.  It consists of 6 big allen head bolts that are threaded inside the allen hole (drilled thru the bolt).  I was a fairly rare option (V-54 roof panel carrier), with only 3,755 out of 40,614 cars.  It was a new mod for 1980. 

I put new bolts in when I had mine painted.  If you do get it successfully installed, do yourself a favor and get 8 of the fuzzy shoulder pads that mount on seat belts and put them, velcro side up on the straps.  Trust me, this is crucial to save your T-Top paint.

My shop manual is over at 71Shark's house along with the car.  Next time I'm over there, I'll see if there is an install drawing and get you a copy. 

  I want to sincerely thank you for sending me that picture.  You have an absolutely STUNNING C3, how did you get it to sit so low?  When mine gets out of the shop I am going to send you a picture and you will be amazed at how close our coupes are in appearence - except mine is millenium yellow, if we put them side by side they could be mascots for IOWA - or the "killer bees" from Saturday night live fame - Anyway you have helped me a lot,my first concern "did I get ripped off?" has been settled, looks like I haven't been. #2 now we get to the install part, and I would like 6to continue to impose on your co-operation.  Is there any possible way, when you get to where this vette is that you could shoot a couple of shoots from the back side of the car?  Ideally if i had a couple of pictures of the rear deck one with the t-tops mounted on the carrier and another with the t-tops off and the mounts exposed that would be great!  Do you think I will need to remove the gas tank to install these things correctly?

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Ken - C3VR Lifetime Member #79

My 82 has the mounting holes so I'm looking for the rack also.  If you chicken out on drilling holes let me know.  When I asked about removing the hardware guys on this site told me that there was no real way to be sure that they would not show later.  On the other had if you want any measurements for installation let me know and I will take them for you.

I have a few pix of her from behind.  Send me a PM with your email address and I'll send you that pix I have.  Not sure if I have them in all config's you asked about, but I'll send you what I have until I get a chance to take a few more pix.

I paid about $400 for my mount, bag and big bolts.  My research indicates they came in a few colors other than black.  I have seen red, black and blue.  I have also seen red, black, blue and gold bags.  I have the gold bag and strongly suspect that the one I bought was for an 82 CE.

HGow do I send you a PM?

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Ken - C3VR Lifetime Member #79

Click on the member's name in their post and a drop down list will appear - click on 'Send Private Message'.

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Jim Olson 

"The Toys"...!!!  Save the Wave!

Where I've been in a Corvette...!!!

Does this help

Cool I did not pay attention to the year when posted, I did not know there was a roof rack for the later models

[QUOTE=maintenance4]Hope this helps....[/QUOTE]   Nice looking vette you got there!!

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(click to see a larger image)

This is great - thank you!

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Ken - C3VR Lifetime Member #79

I think they updated the carrier with the '80 model but I sure appreciate the effort - thank you!

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Ken - C3VR Lifetime Member #79

Looked in my 1982 Corvette Assembly Manual I got from Corvette America page 220 has the locations for the rack holes.  Hope this helps.  If you do not have an assembly manual let me know and I will scan this page into a PDF for you.   Looking at the drawing closely I think you will need me to make some measurements for you also.  Let me know.

Everybody if you see one of these on ebay or some place please PM me and let me know.  I got holes I want to have the option of putting something into.

I'll leave the last sentence alone. 

I found mine on ebay.  Took more than a year.  I wanted the black rack and the colored ones (red, blue) were all that were coming up.

I'll keep an eye out.  If you are a registered member of ebay, you can set up a "watch" that will trigger on key words. 

What was the key word that you used to get notified?

It took me almost 18 months to find mine - periodically I would visit all the corvette sites and just list it as "1980 t-top carrier"  I fibnally found the one I got after I was contacted by a fellow who had an "in the box" one - it was a $125.00 option in 1980 but he was $500.00 plus shipping firm on the price.  I tried to deal but he held tough.

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Ken - C3VR Lifetime Member #79

[QUOTE=dskopp][QUOTE=maintenance4]Hope this helps....[/QUOTE]   Nice looking vette you got there!! [/QUOTE] Not mine, found it at Mershon's world of cars....