At various times, there have been discussions of hoists, storing the hard top, etc. I would like to share my hoist idea which is cost effective and efficient (if I do say so myself).
The heart of the hoist is the 440 lb hoist offered by Harbor Freight. When it is on sale, which is most of the time, it is about $60.
This hoist runs fore and aft, suspended from a 1" pipe which is itself attached to a 2x8, which allows spreading the load over 5 ceiling joists. The ability to move the hoist makes positioning over the car easier and allows the suspended top to be moved out of the way of the overhead door.
The "hanger" bar I used is from a manual hoist, but I believe a roof top carrier can be used since all it does is grab onto the drip rail.
One change I made to the Harbor Frt hoist was to change from single sheave pulleys to double sheave. This cuts the speed in half and makes control very easy.
Installing or removing the top is an easy one person job and takes less than 2 minutes start to finish. And of course the stored top doesn't take up any useable space.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/inspectorgm/100_0961.jpgGus
68 280sl, signal red/beige
