Im thinking of installing a vinyl top on my 67. The car did not come with one originally. I got a line on a special screw for the clip to attach. How hard is it to insatll the top. I got a price from a shop of 250, for just the labor. I though that was nuts !!!! I sure would like to try this on my own. Any tips or tricks please fire away.

Jeff C.
http://hometown.aol.com/whtturbot/myhomepage/personal.html

ttt

Jeff. I have put a vinyl top on my 66 and wrote this on a web page of mine http://www.si.hhs.nl/~rob/experience.html (scroll down to the bottom)

Remove all moldings. Let the vinyl overlap the window sills and cut some away where the pinchwelds are.

If you are planning on sewing your own top like I did :
- the middle piece will be a rectangle
- both sides will have to be shortened to follow the shape of the roof : 3 cm to 0 over 40 cm. at the front and 6.5 to 0 cm over 40 cm. at the rear (remember mine is a 1966 HT).

Be sure to thin the glue as much as possible (50% or more) or otherwise you may see irregularities caused by thicker spots of the glue.

Afterwards using an air pressurerized caulking gun I caulked all edges with Tack Drive (Sikaflex) trying to keep the rain out as much as I could.

Don't know if this is what you were looking for ... If something needs further explaining, please e-amil me.

Rob

High Rob. Where did you get your material and did it have the fleece backing? I am picking up my 66 from the paint shop tomorrow morning and it is going to have a top put on it. Were you able to get the meterial under the drip rail moulding? And on the subject of drip rail mouldings, were they stainless or aluminum? I have been told both and would like to know. My car did not have them and the reproductions are aluminum and the guy that I want to do the top does not want to use them.

Thanks in advance,
John Weaver

John. I got the vinyl from a local upholstery shop. The backing looked like fleece yes, but I did not mind that much. My concern was resistance to water and that seemed fine (2 weeks holding water without dripping throuhg any).

I was not able to have the drip rail moldings cover the vinyl. There is not enough overlap from the molding. I glued the vinyl into the rail as much as I could and covered the edge with caulking.

I have never seen stainless steel moldings for a 1966 chevelle. They are anodized aluminum. I had to install repros and that went quite well, although they look thinner than the previous ones.

Rob

Rob, thanks for the reply. This will be an issue for me. The guy I want to do the top will not touch it unless it can fit under the drip rail mouldings. Goodmark sells stainless drip rail mouldings and maybe this will be the solution for my problem. I am going to let everything cure on the car for 30 days so I have some time to figure out where to go with this problem. How you installed yours is exactly what Hinshaws said since vinyl top material now has the fleece backing. Has anyone out there looked for a source for the vinyl top material without the backing??

Thanks,
John Weaver