Cars with T-tops used to be as common as crossovers are today. No one sells a T-topped car anymore. Why? Well, chiefly because it’s hard to prevent them from leaking. Also (and this is related to the leaking problem) because when you remove about half the structural steel from a cars roof, what remains tends to flex.

Many people don not know that – back in the day, at least – a car’s roof was often a separate piece of metal that was joined to the rest of the car’s body during assembly. For example, the ’78 Camaro I once had. It had T-Tops cut into its roof, which was joined to the body (the upper rear quarter panels) at roughly the level of the door side glass when the glass was fully rolled up. The seam was not visible – at first, when you bought the car. But – over time – the roof would flex and a hairline crack would often become visible.

Meanwhile, the T-Tops began to leak.

It’s important to remember that – back then – the roof section of T-topped Camaros (and Firebirds) was not stamped with the holes for the T-Tops. The holes were cut out after the fact. The work was really crudely done in the early T-topped cars, which were T-Topped after they left the factory by Hurst. Later on, GM improved things with is Fisher (as in Body by Fisher) T-tops, which were better fitted and also had a superior latching system. My ’78 had the crappy latching system with two “snaps” on either side of each top. The later Fisher tops had a single center-mounted lever that latched each top in place. The Fisher tops sealed much better, didn’t rattle as badly as the Hurst tops. But – inevitably – they’d leak, too.

It didn’t bother me, though. Probably because I was in my young 20s and when you’re in you’re young 20s, you don’t care about such things as whether the roof’s leaking a little. Not when you have T-tops and can cruise around with them off when the weather’s fine. It’s hard to convey what it was like but I’ll try. There was something freeing about driving around with the tops off and the wind in your hair. It was like a convertible but better because even with the tops in place, you could look up and see the sky – and the stars, at night. Cruising around – we did this back then – was best done in a T-topped Camaro or Firebird. Your front seat passenger could stand up in the seat and review the troops, too.

I wrecked my ’78 Camaro back in ’87 on the way home from a college party. It was raining and I was feeling good and felt the need for speed. This was not a good idea, as it turned out – and not because of the need for speed but because I was young and broke and the Camaro’s tires were basically bald. That plus a hard downshift and pedal to the floor on a wet road resulted in the Camaro going sideways on the rain-slicked road, then off the road and sideways into a telephone pole. It all happened very fast and in slow motion. There was a thunderous sound, a bright light and then – silence. Other than the sound of the rain in the dark.

I checked to see whether I was dead. I seemed to be alive. The Camaro, however, had reached the end of the road. The passenger side was pushed in almost to the driver’s side. Still, no damage to me – even though I was not “buckled up” and the ’78 Camaro lacked air bags. I left the Camaro in the field and hiked back to where I lived at the time. Later, the next day, I recovered what I could – including the T-tops – and I kept these for years after the car went to Camaro Heaven. I still had them as recently as the early 2000s. When I sold my old house in Northern Virginia, I left the tops in the attic above the garage.

They may still be there, today.

. . .

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