79 Hurst Hatch ???
 

Can any body clarify for me please, were any 1979 Firebirds or T/A's fitted with Hurst Hatch T Roofs or were they all the Fisher type by this year? :confused:

Don't know about Hurst but there was a company other than Fisher; Cars and Concepts, that used glass tops that butted together in the center which looked like a solid piece of glass.

I believe that some early 78 Firebirds/T/A's were still sold/built with Hurst Hatches,but the majority of 78's & ALL 79 -81's were built with Fisher Hatch Roofs.

As Larry states,C & C tops were commonly sold/installed in the aftermarket,as well as Hurst conversions.

There was another brand available made by AHC (Americam Hatch Corp.) which were also referred to as Texas T-tops. These were similar to the Hurst units but slightly LARGER.

FYI: They ALL leak,some worse than others.

From all the research I've done, GM had a contract with Hurst that had to be filled before they could go strictly to their Fisher tops. I think it was in a HPP article from a few months back. From what I read if you walked into a dealer and ordered a firebird and wanted a T roof the salesman pushed the Hurst top simply so GM could fill the orders to get out of the Hurst contract. They went to the Fisher top in '78 but I've seen alot of '78s with Hurst tops. A friend of mine has a survivor '78 that was bought new in Greenwood SC which is about a 15 minute drive from here at Johnson Pontiac. He has a ton of paperwork including the build sheet which did disclose Hurst Tops. His cousin has a black '78 which also has Hurst Tops. Most of the black '78 SEs I've seen have Hurst tops. If a '79 had a factory T-top roof it would have had Fishers. I found an '81 Firebird in a junkyard not far from here with the American Tops and I know of a Martinique Blue 78 with the Cars and Concepts style.

PS. My '78 Gold SE with Fisher tops absolutely does not leak. I've shot my garden hose at full stream at the seams and nothing came through. Only water leaking into my interior is from the front and rear window channels. Either rust or the seal is bad but the T roof is fine. I got caught in a BAD storm last summer in the car. The front windshield leaked on me but the T tops was dry as a bone.

These guys seem to have the info covered. But, no not all t-tops leak. I at one time owned a 77 with hurst T's. I had 0 leaking. No matter how hard it rained of if I was washing it, no leaks.

Mid 1978 was the change over from Hurst to Fisher t-tops. No Trans Am received Hurst t-tops after mid-1978. American and Cars & Concepts continued to offer conversions for later Firebird models, but they were not a factory option.

Thanks for the helpful replies all.
The reason for posting the question was that I have seen several '79 cars over the years fitted with the smaller Hurst Hatches.
I thought that from late '78 Hursts were unavilable?
Surely all the 79s I have seen with them, have not had them retro fitted???
Does anyone else know of a '79 car with Hurst's?

If a '79 has a Hurst top which has the H/H logo in the bottom corner someone did ALOT of work to make them fit on that car. Maybe it's a 77 or 78 with a 79 nose and rear on it. That is WAY easier to accomplish than to put Hurst Hatches in. I would be willing to bet they are the American tops that someone had installed professionally. Car was probably a hardtop originally. American tops look identical to Hurst tops at a distance. They are just a hair larger and obviously don't have the Hurst logo on them. I'd check for the logo next time you see one. Check the VIN on the car too.

Additional info, for the 1978 model year all Hurst Hatch cars carried UPC code WY9 and were only produced at Norwood OH. WY9 cars were not available for sale in the following zones; San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland and Denver.

The Fisher T-Tops carried UPC code CC1.

not all t\a s came with factory t-tops, dealers had aftermarket tops installed on cars on their lots, new owners of non t-top cars had them installed at local glass shops to, dallas sunroof had their own line of t-tops and put a ton of em in here in the dfw area, that said by 79 gm was installing only fisher tops down the asembly line, what newbies to this hobbie dont understand is lots of things were added to new cars that didnt come from the factory, i bought a low low mileage 78 t\a 15years ago from the original owners it came with the receipts from blue max performance center in dallas where it had hooker headers a crane cam edelbrock torker 750 holley and 3.90 rear gears installed w 110miles on the car!:usa2: i worked at shook tire co. in corsicana tx in 77-78 in corsicana some new Z-28s and t\a s came right off the dealer lots w cragers or rocket stage 1s w 60s on em cause those dealers brought the cars to us and we added em why did they do that? because thats what the buyers wanted!:usa2:

When I ordered my 79 Formula I wanted T-tops for it. The dealer said that Fisher was having loads of problems with leaks and he didn't recommend getting them.... so I didn't. He even checked with the NY Zone office and they confirmed it.

So, no Hurst T-tops for 79, Fisher only. 78 was the last year for the Hurst units going by what the dealer told me.

For some more detailed information about the different Firebird t-tops, check out this website:

www.78ta.com/ttops.php

In need of some t-top parts, check out this site:

http://www.sunroofdoctor.com/