Merak Spider

I was thinking of having one of these cut for me...anybody have any experience or know anyone who has chopped a hard top? Know the pros and cons? I want to do this right with attention to detail and a perfect finish. This will be a permanent topless bargirl! Discuss...
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well, I like it

at least your photoshop skills are good!

Considering that a Merak costs peanuts... it will be easy and cheap to get one for such a project.

A few questions:

1) Are you going to keep it a permenent convertible or are you going to create a soft/hard top that properly opens and closes?

2) Are you going to keep the same engine/gearbox? or do you plan to put something else?

3) No butresses? Maybe you could keep the rear window as a wind deflector and at the same time use the c-pillars for safety in case the car rolls over? (properly enforced etc)

4) How about rigidity? How are you going to keep the car from wobbling?


Food for thought

 

Are there other pictures of this car? from this angle it looks pretty good. I'm wondering what they did about the back seats.
Done properly this conversion would cost a fortune! Even with out the soft top.

Good luck!

 

That's good looking!

The space of the back-seats could be used to house a fold-down top under a neat hard panel.

You'll need a lot of stiffening the body though, this was briefly discussed a while ago, after someone showing pics of a Merak targa.

 

Well...This car does not exist...it's "fotochopped" by me. I've been thinking about this for a while after seeing a chopped Merak pass me on I-40 about a year ago. It's a smokin' hot look for this car. The pic I doctored does it about right.

My car would have NO TOP...SoCal and Arizona fairweather cruiser only, so that will help with cost.

The doors need to be modded as well because they surround the window in the up position. I think keeping the pillar behind the door obviates that need but then you end up with a car that looks like a Fiero. I'd rather stiffen the heck out of the car, through the floor pan, with sub-frame connectors, and do it like the picture.

It would be nice to keep the back seats but hey could go in favor of a killer sound system...the latter not being exactly to my taste.

Entire drive train will be stock minus emissions stuff (AZ registry).

I have other ideas as well. Such as dropping the license plate below the fantail to between shortened bumpers, a la 288GTO, and replacing with a trident only. Pacing the Maz script on the rear decklid like an F car. Bringing the exhaust through the two bumpers. The idea here is to clean up finish to accentuate the already great styling of this car.

I love original cars, just to be clear, but I think this car would be a restomod that any Maz fan would really love. And, it would make Meraks even more attractive to some who might not otherwise notice.

Keep the comments flowing...particularly structural details...anybody done this kind of thing..etc.

This is the type of thing I may end up doing more than one of...who knows.

Ciao!

Hannibal

 

Alternative with closed windows...

I miss the butresses
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One part of me says "don't modify a Merak, they are not that many", but I could be a cool car as a spider.

There is two design elements I would consider.

A softer line in the area below the butresses. The top of the rear wing is flat, and needs to have some curves into it. Look at the front wings in comparison. The butresses have curves and "hide" the flat rear end on the Merak.

The other thing is a cover over the rear seats, as the opening for the cockpit will look too big without. This area may also be needed to use for a construction that stiffens up the car.

Best regards
Marius

 

You are right, if you remove the butresses on a normal Merak, your'll see that the rear is too flat. I don't know if that is good or bad for a Spyder, but doing a body modification to change the "flat" surface will definitely raise costs to silly levels.

The Ghibli SS Spyder is also completely flat on the rear but it looks nice.

The question is, would you buy a Merak Spyder? and if yes, then how much would you pay for it?

 

You guys are right about the long flat rear deck, but there are precedents and I think it looks fine. Again...simpler may be better. On mine, I would leave the rear seats for the very reason of visually shortening the rear. The few F308 spyders out there have VERY long rear decks and look fine. Side profile attached for thoughts. MazBlue...the orange is very nice and an additional view angle that again looks great. I really think it would look fantastic from any angle. I think chop work should not be expensive if no top is being constructed. Stiffening the subframe will be the only issue that may drive up costs. I'm guessing here, but maybe 15K for a decent car, 15K for paint/body/chop and I'll have a nice roadster for getting groceries, driving to the beach, and date night. And...no one else will have one! Ciao! Hannibal.
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well, for 15k you get a citroen-merak, which is not an option for me, I prefer 100% Maserati. Plus, I'd only get an EU Merak, so that would probably cost around 30k to start with. Then another 15k for the conversion/paint/stiffening/etc would bring the total cost to around 45k. Plus, the car would have no resale value.

quite a lot of money but still an interesting project...

 

I think your estimate of $15,000.00 for a "nice" example is $10,000.00 too low....Mark

 

308 Spyder for comparison...has a really long rear deck lid...still not bad though. I would never do this to a F308, but the Merak looks even better and it may be worth a go.

Noted on costs of the base car. I'd only look for a car with great mechanicals and min rust...interior and paint can be absolute cr@p as this would all get redone. I'm not about to take a great car and mod it...I'd rather take one on the ragged edge of needing a resto and doing it this way.

I agree that spending 30K on the base car is silly. Remember, my goal here a fun ride around town and I'm not sure I really care about resale. It's a toy and I'd be doing this for fun, not to impress anybody at C&C. Still, my guess, because this car has great lines to begin with, is that it may be well liked anyway!
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The wheelbase looks -IMO- too long for sch a project.

A Targa, yes. But no "Spyder".....

 

Out of curiosity, how do you register a converted/chopped Coupe to Spyder? Is it legal? Can you get license plates easily?

There is a Ghibli Spyder conversion on mobile for around 200k.

 

In Arizona, USA, no changes to the title or registration are required. It will still be registered as a two door coupe as that is how it will be registered when I purchase the car. If I change states, then it MAY need to be registered as a convertible, but not likely as the VIN for the car will still be associated with a coupe.