What is a California Top?

[Guest Tom Timmins]

I have seen ads for late teen touring cars which said the car had a "California" top. What exactly does this mean??

[ronbarn]

The California top was essentially a hard-top touring design, i.e. a four door touring car with a top that could not be folded for that full open car feeling.

[Guest Graham Clayton]

Beginning about 1916, open touring cars could be fitted with rigid tops, open or with removable windows on the sides, for use in cooler seasons. Different makers had their own names for this feature, but because the concept was popularized by the coachbuilding firm Walter Murphy Company in Pasadena, CA, theirs and others came to be known as California Tops. Makers of these accessories pitched the idea that the California Top could be used in the cooler months of the year, while it could be replaced by a traditional folding soft-top in the warmer months. Some car makers offered these as an option with their touring cars. Many aftermarket producers of California Tops finished them with coated-fabric roofcovers for enhanced styling, typically using artificial leather for the covering. Given some of the styling trends of the time, artificial leather styles with a Spanish Print effect were popular in this application.

https://www.haartz.com/en/consumer_info/glossary/glossary.asp

[Guest richentee]

Attached is the photo of our 1917 Franklin 4 Passenger Roadster. It came from the factory with a folding top which was replaced with the California top in the mid-20s.

[Dave Mellor NJ]

There's a guy near me, George Matteo who has a 24 Studebaker with a carson top. He says it's the only top it ever had and it's factory equipment.

[Rusty_OToole]

If you are not familiar with early cars (before 1920) the open touring was the most popular body. Sedans were very expensive and seldom seen.

Tops came in 2 forms. You could get a folding top which most people seldom or never folded down. Or you could get a fixed top, which looked the same but did not fold. This made the car a little cheaper.

The California top started as a replacement for the stock top. It had more looks and style, and was never meant to fold down. Some manufacturers offered them as an option on new cars in the early 20s. This was about when the sedan became popular so the California top was a short lived fad, starting around 1916 and most popular from 1920 - 24.