American Hatch

Back to Hoghead's Hatch Heaven

American Hatch was the least common of the 4 manufacturers that I am aware of. These aftermarket T-tops are very rare and hard to get parts for today. They can be identified by the fact that they are almost identical to the Hurst tops, but on the Firebirds they are noticeably larger. Like Hurst, they have clamped-in frames and two handles on the tops. These have solid tempered PPG glass in them, where the Hurst has laminated LOF. That's the actual glass mark at right (pardon our reflection). "Solarcool" tint.

This advertisement (below) is courtesy of Fred Schramm at pontiacpower.net. It states that American used a network of installers, like Cars & Concepts did. I think we have to assume from this that they made F and A/G-body t-top setups, like Hurst.

Guess what? At the 2004 Trans Am nationals, we saw a set of these tops in a 1975 Trans Am (below). They were clamped down and caulked in. NOTE: Those little hardware items aren't original.
I know this is an awful sight, but this is the only set we've ever seen in real life. If you're used to looking at Hurst, you can tell these are different by the width of the roof between the tops. Except for the size, everything about them looked identical to Hurst. A copy, perhaps?

These Grand Prix tops (right) appeared on ebay and were identified as American Hatch brand tops. The pictures don't show us much, but again, only set I ever saw.

American Hatch was the least common of the 4 manufacturers that I am aware of. These aftermarket T-tops are very rare and hard to get parts for today. They can be identified by the fact that they are almost identical to the Hurst tops, but on the Firebirds they are noticeably larger. Like Hurst, they have clamped-in frames and two handles on the tops. These have solid tempered PPG glass in them, where the Hurst has laminated LOF. That's the actual glass mark at right (pardon our reflection). "Solarcool" tint.
This advertisement (below) is courtesy of Fred Schramm at pontiacpower.net. It states that American used a network of installers, like Cars & Concepts did. I think we have to assume from this that they made F and A/G-body t-top setups, like Hurst.

Guess what? At the 2004 Trans Am nationals, we saw a set of these tops in a 1975 Trans Am (below). They were clamped down and caulked in. NOTE: Those little hardware items aren't original. I know this is an awful sight, but this is the only set we've ever seen in real life. If you're used to looking at Hurst, you can tell these are different by the width of the roof between the tops. Except for the size, everything about them looked identical to Hurst. A copy, perhaps?
These Grand Prix tops (right) appeared on ebay and were identified as American Hatch brand tops. The pictures don't show us much, but again, only set I ever saw.