There apparently were a few copies of a “factory” T-top canopy but we don’t know exactly when it was offered. Other enthusiasts might have info. to refute the following, but i don’t think I ever saw a photo of a T-top in any promotional material from California Component Cars itself (which made the vast majority of Sterlings out there.)
It seems like, after the main production run from CCC was pretty much over, there were a few variations made by subsequent owners of the molds/rights to the Sterling which resulted in production of a few “GT-style” dashboards and maybe a few T-top canopies which were retrofitted into existing Sterlings. That’s where I think these came from.
The reason I believe a few T-top Sterlings weren’t just one-off customizations Is because they seem to have come from a mold. They don’t seem to be mismatched layers of different weaves of fiberglass, Bondo, etc.
The logically follow-up question is “is there a source for the T-top canopy?” And the answer, sadly, is “no.”
Maybe there is a parallel universe in which Unofun sold me his t~top Sterling AND there was a market to justify making a $10,000 set of molds to re-create its canopy. Until we can interface with that universe, the only path to a new T-top is to customize a regular canopy.
Because of covid, several people are no longer able to buy these cars in my collection for one reason or another even though I held on to the cars for them. They always wanted to leave large deposits after looking at them, which of course I won't do BECAUSE of covid. I hope none of them have died, I have lost contact with them after almost a year, I have said that they have been sold. I need to clean them up before posting them on Craigslist, Ebay or Thesamba.com next month. I figured that I would post them here first to support the forum. They all follow my rules. which are that they are titled, complete, good glass and have running engines. they all need some kind of work to get them back on the road. the red T-top has a Buick V-6 but needs a quadrajet carb before starting up again.
