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Vinyl tops are in league with Satan !

4K views 34 replies 24 participants last post by  backseat69 
#1 ·
I truly hate vinyl tops with every bit of my soul. Here is my progress yesterday



 
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#4 ·
YES, YES, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hate 'um also!

Beck in the 70s, EVERYONE thought they had to have a vinyl top------------including me. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

The 76 Cutlass that I still have today, I ordered new. It's a very unique car and I'm keeping it. It's a Cutlass S, not a 442. I ordered it with PS, PB, air, tilt, and a white vinyl top, AM-FM 8track, and a few other options. Years later, before I realized it, rust has taken a toll around the edges of the vinyl and chrome trim.
If you look close you can see the rust along the lower edge of the chrome trim. Someday, when I become rich and famous, I'm going to have the vinyl top removed and and the rust areas repaired.
Yes, having a vinyl top is a HUGE mistake!!!!!!!!!!
 

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#6 ·
A lot of those vinyl tops were dealer installed to promote the sale, I know because I used to do about 5 vinyl tops in a day for dealers.
 
#26 ·
Same here took the Vinyl Top off my camino for a couple of years and liked it much better when it had a Vinyl Top so I finally painted it again and changed the color for the third time I decided to installed a new Vinyl Top now my problem is I have not been able to find the drip rail molding to finish it.
So if anybody that has a 68 to 72 El Camino and they're going to remove a Vinyl Top and not put one back on I would be very happy to buy your drip rail molding's.
 
#13 ·
I like the look of vinyl tops but I'm a little worried about some rust forming under it so now I'm thinking to have the top painted black instead while still using the vinyl top mouldings like in the pictures below).

Claude.
 

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#16 ·
Vinyl tops in their day were very popular, any original car being restored certainly affords a quality top installation. The vinyl top was a market attempt to mimic another very popular option back in the day: "The convertible". Done correctly on cars stored indoors with minimal weather exposure and good maintenance, there is no reason they can't last for many years. I am lucky enough to afford 3-70's and 1-72 Chevelle. All three 70's sport vinyl lids.
 
#20 ·
I always thought the rust on vinyl top cars was due to the factories not preparing the surface correctly for the vinyl top & trim ? If the area around the VT trim is prepared right would that then minimize or illiminate it completely ?
If I had the choice today of between a solid color or painted roof or vinyl top ? I would choose either the solid color or the vinyl top over a painted roof because I think the painted roof cheapens the cars looks.
 
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#21 ·
Nah, Ive had to repair a few vinyl roofs. Not to this extent but many with significant pitting. Water gets under the vinyl and stays there. Even less than 10 years out of the factory they had rust issues. Its not a convertible. The Vinyl isnt fooling anyone. I'd take painted roofs 10:1 over vinyl because with vinyl I KNOW there will problems underneath even if the roof looks good from the outside.
 
#24 ·
I like a proper vinyl top! It dresses up a car nicer than a painted top. A two tone painted top is nice too.

When I bought my car in the 1980's, there was some minimal rust in the rear window lower right corner. It was repaired back then and still solid to this day. And garaged since then.
 

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#25 ·
A two tone painted top is nice too.
That's what I was talking about in my previous post (post #13). That way, you have the two-tone effect but without the worries about rust. :noway: The only thing I'm wondering about is if there is some kind of "textured" paint to make it look closer to the grain in the vinyl… :confused:… but still... a nice gloss black painted top looks great too! :thumbsup:

Claude. ;)
 
#27 ·
My '69 Malibu was kind of a non-oem restoration and I chose a vinyl top that had the very thin padding underneath, somewhat like the 80s landau tops. Never topcoated the roof, just epoxy...because I didn't know any better. I never babied it and it saw many weekends under rain. Looked great until it hit route 66 about 12 years later, about 3000 miles of summer in the southwest at 70+ mph finally started to delaminate the top and it "bubbled". I also used 3m Super 77 spray adhesive to stick it.....another grave mistake. After removing the top, it had developed some surface rust right around the trough of the rear window, but that's it. IMO, if it had been an original type top without padding, proper topcoats used, drains installed in the corners of the rear window trough, and the use of Welwood landau adhesive to stick it, all would be fine.
Love the look of vinyl tops on the '68-'69 hardtop models.
 
#29 ·
Kinda late to the party, and not much to add.

Back in the early '70s, I had 2 friends who worked at the Van Nuys plant. (I tried to get a job there, but so did everyone in those days!)

My friends said that vinyl tops were also put on the cars with a crappy roof seam line, misaligned, warped stuff, etc.

I didn't work there, so I don't know the specifics. But they said my '70 Pontiac Grand Prix had those symptoms and they were corrected by adding a vinyl top.
 
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