This started with a question on 3/8/2010 from Frank Watson in Australia, "Can someone tell me who made the VP design fiberglass hardtop"?

It is real, but it was not make by VP. Apparently it was made by a company in Australia. From some discussion on the Twin Cam egroup about 5 years earlier, there was some conjecture that only 200 of these particular tops were made.

At 02:10 PM 3/21/2010 -0700, Ian Hazeldine in Australia wrote:
"If the hard top was manufactured in Australia then it could have been made by J&S Fibreglass, Parramatta Rd., Ashfield. They are no longer in business. I have one of their hard tops that I use regularly. Legend has it that they obtained an aluminium hard top from the U.K. and used it to form their copy and if you remove the head lining you can see the join marks of the aluminium original. I do not want to remove the lining in mine so cannot confirm this. A Sydney MG club member is said to have the mold and is considering re manufacturing them. J&S. also made the Buchanan body for MG chassis that is on Barney's site".

At 02:19 PM 3/24/2010 -0700, Ian Hazeldine wrote:
"I still have the hardtop and use it regularly. .... I will take the photo then and forward to you.

At 04:43 PM 4/11/2010 -0700, Ian Hazeldine wrote:
"Attached are some photo's of the hardtop you requested".

Addendum April 21, 2012: These pictures were a little confusing for a couple of years, because no J&S hardtops were ever vinyl covered by the manufacturer. They were mostly painted black. However, in the mid to late 1970's when the gel on these hardtops started to break down due to the harsh Australian sunshine, a few of the owners followed the fashion at the time of having them covered in vinyl like some locally produced cars. It could have been cheaper than having the hardtop repainted. -- To add to the confusion, the picture of the MGA in the ad below appears to have the top painted same color as the car body (which might have been done only for the ad).

This advertisement from Sports Car World special volume “Worlds Fastest Sports Cars”, 1961.

Addendum April 16, 2012

These pictures are supplied by "KJ" in Australia. This appears to be a very convincing replica of the factory alloy hardtop. It certainly looks like it should use all of the hardware and seals from the original factory alloy hardtop.

Addendum April 20, 2012
Dan Casey in Clontarf, Queensland, Australia wrote:
"The fiber glass hardtop shown, J&S, is the same profile as the aluminum one, but the rear Perspex window for the J&S is smaller than the aluminium factory original. This was discovered when I sent a new fiber glass window down to Ben Rollo in Melbourne, Australia. Ben is the proud owner of a genuine aluminium hard top, and according to our research, 1 other one is on a Twin Cam in western Australia".
"The overall length of the rear screen is the same, but the aluminium one is 1 inch higher than the fibre glass one. according to Ben Rollo the owner of the 1 of 2 genuine aluminium hard tops in Australia".