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Technical Convertible Newport 1998 BMW 740iL


From the January 1999 issue of Vehicle and Driver.

Al Zadeh’s enduring love affair with convertibles began shortly after he arrived from Iran nearly 20 years ago. While pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at the University of Southern California, Zadeh’s personal car was always a convertible. Now he runs his own conversion company, Newport Convertible Engineering, in Placentia, California, where he removes the metal top from whatever you want to bring to him.

Take this BMW 740iL as an example. It’s a long-wheelbase four-door, and the German automaker didn’t design it to be topless, but neither the car’s Floridian owners nor Al Zadeh let that stop them. . And now, $22,000 and countless hours of labor afterward, Bimmer wears a new wig – a power hat.

Cutting the roof off any sedan will seriously reduce its stiffness. To support the 740iL’s monolithic body, NCE welded a labyrinth of 2 x 2 inch square-section hollow tubes below the floor. The tubes run the length of the seesaw — horizontally from one seesaw to the other and diagonally from the ends of the seesaw to the center. The reinforcements reduce ground clearance by about an inch, but they look strong.

newport bmw 740il conversion technique

David Dewhurst|car and driver

The 2 x 1-inch tubes extend vertically to the highest point in the front bonnet structure and to the shock absorbers at the rear, tying them to the chassis. Finally, Zadeh added a “trunk bridge”—a tubular arch that runs between the main framing elements. It’s visible in the trunk, but it intrudes minimally on luggage space.

Removing the roof creates other problems. The door glass of the 740iL follows the window frame. Trimming the frames will leave the windows unsupported, but leaving the frames as they are will look extremely shabby. So NCE removed only the top rail of the front window frame and everything but the vertical B-pillar on the rear window frame.

With the doors closed, with the top or bottom facing down, this arrangement looks fine. Open a front door, and you’ll be witness to the eerie sight of two vertical frames ending in a slotted stump. It is not particularly stylish.

A “basket handle” loop runs over the vehicle between the B-pillars, providing a tie rod for the bodywork, a support for the top and a convenient place to mount the dome and two map reading lights. Sawing the roof (and rear windows) also removes the built-in radio antenna, so the BMW now wears a conventional mast antenna mounted on the rear panel.

newport bmw 740il conversion technique

David Dewhurst|car and driver

Rear seat space is also affected during this transition. The articulated upper structure and hydraulic sliders take up so much space that the outer supports of the bucket seats are completely eliminated. Therefore, the occupants are relocated inside where they have to ride a hump. We think a more ingenious solution would be to remove the center armrest and squeeze the two bucket seats together.

With the top roof, the BMW has the same styling as that of the original sedan, although the C-pillar area is now larger and the plastic rear window is smaller than the original backlight. The top of the windshield has a one-inch slot to receive the top edge of the head. It is clamped into place by two centering clamps and fits snugly. This helps to reduce noise and raise the head, both of which seemed pretty decent during a short test drive.

In fact, the BMW retains a lot of its inherent calm and serenity when wearing a steel roof. The folded top stacks about 6 to 8 inches above the trunk, but the collapsible trunk covers it neatly. When moving, the car shook on impact, but no more than most factory convertibles.

The only question that remains is how well the car will hold up over time. Zadeh is confident. He did 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 hopes to finish 98 with 100 points. From bodywork to mechanism design and fabrication to canvas roof tasks, every aspect of the job is handled in-house by Zadeh’s 15-member team.

Our BMW went straight from the showroom to the NCE with less than 100 miles on it. For its owner, it’s almost like buying a new factory-made convertible. To us, it seemed like a leap of faith.


Newport convertible technique
1025B South Melrose
Placenta, California 92870;
714–632–3287

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