1967 Imperial Convertible

RKC · Sunday at 9:22 PM

1. My trunk deck lid will not stay up all of the way. How do you adjust the torsion bars? Mine is currently in the middle hole. Service manual is not clear.
2. What vendors are recommended for a new convertible top?
Thanks

CBODY67 · Sunday at 10:38 PM

Those torsion rods normally do not weaken with time, from what I've seen. Not to say they can't. What other weight does the deck lid have on it?

Changing the adjustment holes for the rods can be tricky and need some muscle. Think how much weight is being supported, for one thing, which must be counterbalanced and leveraged by the rods. I suspect the reason it is not mentioned in many FSMs is that it is very uncommon to need to do. PLUS borderline dangerous.

Robbins used to be one of the quality top brands, that was at least OEM-level quality. Not sure if that is still the case. Others might have comments on that, too.

CBODY67

detmatt · 2025-02-03T05:20:42-0600

Mine have gotten week in my silver car over the years and no longer stays open either. I looked and they appear to be on the slot with the least tension, maybe now’s the time to make an adjustment and I’ll report back. It’s not something that’s been very high on my priority list but now that I’m most of the way through an engine and trans swap I’ll feel like plugging away at that list.

detmatt · 2025-02-03T16:31:23-0600

Unfortunately mine are in fact set with the most tension. I have a set from a parts car that I can swap out but that probably won’t happen very soon.

Big_John · 2025-02-03T16:42:48-0600

detmatt said:
Unfortunately mine are in fact set with the most tension. I have a set from a parts car that I can swap out but that probably won’t happen very soon.
View attachment 704841

Are you sure that's the setting for the most tension? I could be wrong, but I think that's the lightest tension position.

detmatt · 2025-02-03T18:06:20-0600

Big_John said:
Are you sure that's the setting for the most tension? I could be wrong, but I think that's the lightest tension position.

I’ll have another look tomorrow but so far that is how I interpreted it without climbing into the trunk.

detmatt · 2025-02-04T07:58:31-0600

detmatt said:
I’ll have another look tomorrow but so far that is how I interpreted it without climbing into the trunk.

Great news, After getting in the trunk for a closer look @Big_John is correct. That’s the setting with the least tension. :thumbsup:

detmatt · 2025-02-04T09:30:09-0600

I moved the bars to the middle slot and as I figured it was not for the faint of heart. This is not a job for small hand tools and it needs to be well thought out! I started with some short pry bars, blocks of wood to protect the paint and smallish clamps and quickly realized that some serious leverage was going to be required. After thinking about what I could find in the shop I landed on my 3’ long rebar bender and it worked perfectly.