Hi Hank and everyone,
after reading through a few threads and what's in the technical manual, I decided against a winch or hanging cradle. Although it might be helpful for actually moving the top on/off, I don't want all that weight pulling down on the ceiling of my garage, especially not over my precious Pagoda. As for moving on/off, I think it's reasonable to do that when a buddy or 3 are available to help out with muscles instead of pulleys. I also considered the floor cradle design that is available, figuring I might make one of those rather easily. But I didn't want to take up floor space on the garage and, notwithstanding that a cover would help, I didn't want the inner liner exposed to falling dust.
So instead I decided to build a shelf to hold the hardtop, with a sling for the front. This shelf has posts that support the load by compression, passing the weight down to the ground instead of relying on something attached to a rafter. The shelf is new in my garage so doesn't occupy space that was formerly used for anything else, with the same stuff stored underneath that was originally on the floor anyway. Once the shelf was built and the sling screwed into the ceiling, the car arrived, the buddies helped me lift the top up on to the shelf and voila it was out of the way and safe. Dan C calls it "simple and effective" -- high praise from the Doctor.
I discovered something I hadn't read up to then: all (or nearly all) the weight is on those two pins that go into the holes behind the doors. (The pins that have the latches on them.) The hardtop is so nicely balanced that I hardly needed the sling at all! There is almost no weight on the front. I left the sling installed, since the work was already done, but really it didn't need to be so strong. So it's just an added comfort to know that the top cannot lean or tilt forward.
In fact, I barely needed the depth of the shelf. It's built 60cm from the back wall to the front of the shelf, and that is pretty much exactly the distance from the back of the hardtop (say, from the middle latch forward) to those mounting pins. So the weight of the hardtop is mostly on the very front of the shelf. Not really ideal, but it doesn't worry me. If I can make a suggestion, it'd be to build a frame or post-and-lintel that is maybe 10cm wide and position it at least 60cm from the wall. The hardtop could then be supported on a simple beam under the mounting pins. The pins are 135cm apart, so your beam has to be at least that long if you take my suggestion. I guess you could even support the entire hardtop on just two posts -- 135cm apart and 60 cm from the wall -- if you keep the posts from wobbling. Of course you would probably also want some minor support both at the front mounting pins (the ones that attach to the top of the windshield) and the back, just for confidence.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
