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Custom-Built Convertibles
Nobody's been able to buy a brand new convertible since the Federal Government established stiff crash and rollover standards that forced Detroit's automakers to get out of the convertible business. Right?
Wrong? Convertibles aren't dead. All it takes to get one is three to six weeks and a healthy chunk of money.
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Custom-Built Convertibles FARM HOME Cars 2-1-4 Nobody's been able to buy a brand new convertible since the Federal Government established stiff crash and rollover standards that forced Detroit's automakers to get out of the convertible business. Right?
Wrong? Convertibles aren't dead. All it takes to get one is three to six weeks and a healthy chunk of money.
"They're expensive but they could also prove to be an excellent investment," says Mark Doyne, president of Emess Coach Builders, headquartered in Largo, Fla., a suburb of Clearwater. He figures the owner of a "converted" Classic 11 convertible should be able to buy a car and drive it for a year or two and recover all of his conversion cost, plus most if not all of the original cost.
Emess Coach Builder converts only new cars, charging about $8,850 to make over a Continental Mark V (that doesn't include cost of the car itself), $4995 to convert a Cordoba and $4250 for "soft topping" a new Mustang, Monte Carlo, Grand Prix, Regal or Cutlass Supreme. That's the approximate conversion cost for two door hardtops with free standing windows. It's even more expensive for other models.
"There's a lot more to it than just cutting off the top," explains Doyne. "It involves considerable hand work to strip the car down to add reinforcing bars, remove the top and to put it all back together again."
All deals go through car dealers. Customers can have the dealer drop ship the new car direct to Emess from the factory, or they can make arrangements to have it driven down.
New Federal regulations which forced major automakers out of the convertible business have a "loophole" which allows anyone to build up to 500 convertibles of any model without qualifying the cars for crash tests. This small number wouldn't be worth the effort for Detroit's "giants" but it affords more than enough swinging room for opportunists such as Doyne who saw a need, then promptly jumped in to fill it.
For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Emess Coach Builders, Mark Doyne, Pres., 11442 66th St. No., Largo, Fla. 33541 (ph. 813 541-4491).
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