By Barry Winfield
Al Zadeh's long-running affair with convertibles began shortly after
his arrival from Iran nearly 20 years ago. While at the University of
Southern California pursuing a chemical-engineering degree, Zadeh's
personal cars were always convertibles. Now he runs his own conversion
company, Newport Convertible Engineering, in Placentia, California, where
he lops the metal tops off anything you care to bring him.
Take this BMW 740iL, for example. It's a long-wheelbase car with four
doors, and the German automaker did not design it to go topless, but
neither the car's Floridian owner nor Al Zadeh let that stop them. And
now, $22,000 and innumerable worker-hours later, the Bimmer wears a new
toupee -- a power top.
Cutting the roof off any sedan severely compromises its rigidity. To
brace the 740iL's unibody, NCE welds a maze of two-by-two-inch
square-section hollow tubing underneath the floor pan. Tubes run the
length of the rocker sills -- laterally from one rocker to the other and
diagonally from the ends of the rockers to the center. The reinforcements
reduce ground clearance by an inch or so, but they look strong.
Two-by-one-inch tubes extend vertically to the highest point in the
cowl structure in front and to the shock towers in the rear, tying these
to the underbody frame. Finally, Zadeh adds a "trunk bridge" --
a tubular arch running between the main frame members. It's visible in the
trunk, but it intrudes minimally on luggage space.
Removing the roof produces other problems. The 740iL's door glass runs
in window frames. Cutting the frames off would leave the windows
unsupported, but leaving the window frames in their entirety would look
extremely dorky. So NCE removes just the upper rail of the front window
frame and everything but the B-pillar upright on the rear window frame.
When the doors are shut, with the top either up or down, this
arrangement looks okay. Open a front door, and you're treated to the
peculiar sight of two frame uprights ending in grommeted stumps. It isn't
particularly stylish.
A "basket handle" hoop runs over the car between the
B-pillars, providing a brace for the body, a support for the top, and a
handy place to fit a dome light and two map-reading lights. Sawing off the
roof (and rear window) also removes the integrated radio antenna, so the
BMW now wears a conventional mast antenna mounted in the rear
quarter-panel.
Rear-seat space suffers, too, in this conversion. The articulating top
structure and the hydraulic rams consume so much space that the outboard
bolsters of the bucketed seats are completely removed. Occupants are
therefore displaced inboard where they must ride a hump. We think a more
artful solution would have been to remove the center armrest and squeeze
the two bucket seats together.
With its top up, the BMW has a profile similar to that of the stock
sedan, although the C-pillar area is now huge and the plastic rear window
is smaller than the original backlight. The windshield header has a
one-inch channel to accept the top's leading edge. It is clipped in place
by two over centering clamps and fits flush. This helps cut noise and top
lift, both of which seemed quite tolerable during a brief test drive.
In fact, the BMW retains a lot of the composure and tranquility it had
when it wore a steel top. The folded top stacks up about six to eight
inches above the trunk, but the snap-on boot covers it tidily. On the
move, the car exhibits some cowl shake over bumps, but no more than most
factory convertibles do. The only question remaining is how well the car
will hold together over time.
Zadeh is confident. He does a lot of conversions -- about 65 in '97,
including a Lincoln Mark VIII, a Mercedes S-class and an E-class coupe,
and a Lexus LS400. He hoped to finish off '98 with 100. From body
reinforcement through mechanism design and fabrication to canvas
top-making tasks, every aspect of the work is handled in-house by Zadeh's
15-member team.
Our BMW went directly from the showroom to NCE with fewer than 100
miles on it. For its owner, that's almost like buying a new, factory-made
convertible. To us, it seems like a remarkable leap of faith.
Newport Convertible Engineering, 1025B South Melrose, Placentia,
California 92870; 714-632-3287.
