710M Hardtop

[stevo]

I am the proud owner of a stock 1975 710 M wich I purchased from Thilo in Prescott about a year and a half ago. Unfortunately for me, or perhaps fortunately due to the economy, I have a good full-time job in Calif. but my truck is in Az. where I hope to retire in the near future. Anyways, I'll get to the point...I would like to permanently mount a front hardtop (preferably metal) in place of the soft top. I have spoken to both Thilo at Mogs-R-Us and Patrick at CWR (I know, apparently no love lost between them) about this subject and both of them had negative feelings about it which makes me curious because both of them have hard tops to sell. I would be very interested in any member's imput especially those of you who currently have hard tops. Thanks, Steve

[pinzdriver]

stevo i'm in phoenix i have built 3 hardtops in the past 3 years, i can send you pics just email me sence i don't know how to do pics on this web site.
pinzdriver@cox.net.

[ARVOps]

stevo,

The Ugly Duck has aluminum 5 bar hard top. I'm in Ramona, if you end up in the San Diego area, you’re welcome to come check it out.

I don’t know who made it but Andre (FatFab.) is familiar with it. He is in your neck of the woods and can fab up what ever you desire. You might want to hit him up before he heads back to Texas.

If I was doing it from scratch, I’d have a electronics console built in and not use diamond plate.

[Thomas-E]

I found pictures of Phil Kalamaros' cab hard top kit several years ago. Phil had sold his last and I don't think that he wanted to build any more, (too much of a hassle??)

Anyway I printed out his pictures and took them with my truck to a local welder/fabricator to see if he would want to build a top and back similar to Phils'.

We made a few changes to the design...
I removed the angle that has the loops for the canvas straps, built a new piece to mount there and was attached to the 16 gauge metal forming the top.
Instead of one center support we installed two, spaced so that I could build a overhead console wide enough for my Alpine CD and changer.

All square tubing was 1" and all sheet metal was 16 Gauge, all welded together. I feel that this construction enhances the roll protection.

So... my suggestion is find a component fabricator and get a quote, I'm very satisfied and paid about $900 for all the metalwork. I found a pickup rear sliding at a glass store that no longer did auto glass, looked at the three that he still had. Took the one I wanted for $100.

I'll try to find the pix, not sure where I placed them, too busy on the slide on camper project.

You can see my finished cabtop on the Yahoo Pinzgauer group "photos section" under "Toms 712m" album 99.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pinzgauer ... 1/pic/list

I went for a slide on camper that I can remove and still have my pickup for other loads, like three pallet loads of retaining wall blocks.

[stevo]

Thanks for your imput, top looks great! Would really appreciate more info on it if possible ie: cost, availability of fabricator, more detailed photos if possible. Thanks again...Stevo

[texas pinzgauer]

Contacting Andre Swanson is a good call as he's built a number of these in the past and can suggest/propose a number of different iterations to suit your needs.

[JNijst]

Hi Steve,

I tipped my 710M some time ago and completely rebuild the top. Basically a powdercoated metal frame with 4 mm Aluminium cover. I did not want anybody slicing their knife through the canvas to check the inside out. Unfortunatly I cannot load pictures right now... Maybe when I get home...

The only problem I can see is that the center of gravity, which already is fairly high due to the Pinz design, gets even higher when more weight is placed on top.
The advantage is that you can insulate it all and feel a lot safer about theft.

Jules