Targa vs Hardtop

[bob v]

In my younger days, I owned an 87 hardtop. What a great car. Smooth, powerful, beautiful lines. But I needed to sell it to buy a pickup truck for the house.

Now I'm in the market for a used Supra, but I'd really lie to have a Targa. The open air feeling is what I'm looking for. Here's my question:

Are there any structural problems inherent with the Targas? Anything in particular I should look for as I start my search? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[projectsupramk3]

Nope, no inherent structural problems with them, there are only two irritating things about targas. One is the "targa shake", after you drive the car for a while though you tend to block it out and don't notice it as much though. If you want it to handle just like a hardtop with the targa off though, you can try and find or make a set of "targa bars". I made an X-brace for mine and it stiffined it right back up just as if the targa was on without making it seem like your in a cage. Don't waste your money on Dean's bars, no offence to him but they only stop the front-to-back motion and do nothing to stop the side-to-side twisting where most of the targa shake comes from. The other is the leaking targa seals, you can either buy new ones from toyota or try rubbing vaseline all over them to make the seals swell alittle. Just look for any discolored carpet under the floor mats where water has been pooling. By the way was that 87 a Turbo? You bought it new from the showroom? That's so awesome that your coming back to the MKIII.

[Anicode]

I have never had a problem with my targa moving or rattiling on my MKIII. If you make sure to screw in the scrws tight enogh then you wont hear a thing, even at 120 mph from the targa.

[projectsupramk3]

Don't know what your reffering to there, but just to clarify, I wasn't talking about with the targa on, "targa shake" is specificly a targa off problem. It's where the front half of the car likes to move seperate from the rear half because there's a huge section of structural roof missing.

[b18lsvtec]

you might want to refer to www.supraforums.com for this answer, however I have heard the targa tops work well for the mark 3. Mine does on my mark 4. =) Good luck man.