Nothing completes the look of a kustom quite like a chop with a Carson-style top. You can drop it, shave it, and french it, but that’s small change compared to hacking the roof off, chopping the windshield, and building your own padded top. Scott Guildner still builds Carson tops, and even though we’re in a brand-new century, we’ll show you how he built an old-school, padded-chicken-wire top like they did in the ’50s. The best part about the methodology is that it’s simple enough that a patient garage builder like you could probably pull it off in a weekend, not including the trip to the upholsterer.
Guildner formed the skeleton and basic shape of the top using electrical conduit and conduit-bending tools available at most hardware stores, built a header panel to rest on top of the windshield frame, then skinned it with wire mesh and sent it off to the upholsterer. He builds each top by hand to flow with the profile of the car, so no two are alike. This isn’t rocket science, but there’s a whole lot of eyeballin’ going on during the buildup of a one-off Carson-style top. Here’s how Guildner does it.
