Hello: Something does't look right with the front bumper on this car. It extends to far from the front of the car. I'm not a guru on the 50 studes, but I checked in my stude buyers guide, and a 50 convertible has the bumpers flush to the body. He also states the car has a manual top,don't know if this was stock, or did the motor burn out.?
Regards,Sheldon
.The top mechanism on your car is powered. On the left side of your car, is a motor attached to the floor by a clevis pin and two rubber shock absorbers. On the right side of your car is a slave motor, attached the same way. Power to sync the raising and lowering of the top between the two drives is done via a special "speedometer" cable linkage that runs from the power sided motor to the mechanical motor. There should be a non descript switch located under your dash. Looks like a toggle switch with a chromed or possibly painted handle, depending on trim level.
The top motors are easy to repair. When originally made, they had grease, orange in color, packed in at the base, and the two halves were screwed together with a paper gasket. Over time the grease hardened, and the gears would get stuck. Remove your back seat, then remove the back of the rear seat. Unscrew the side panels,, which will expose the drive motors.
The reason he says it is a manual top is based on the fact that the top mechanism is a screw drive, so by lifting the top by hand all you are doing is pulling a long screw up thru the tubes.
When I rebuilt my top drives, I tapped a hole in each base and inserted a Zerk fitting that I could over time add fresh grease. The electric motor on the left side has three wires runing to it, and it is attached to the base with a special rubber coupling, which counters the torque of the motor.
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