vinyl top or not

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TheTecher

TheTecher

Evan the jeeper.
Joined
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My 68 cuda was originally a vinyl top car. Today was about 60 degrees outside and I took about a half of an inch of bondo off the upper quarter panel. What I found under the bondo was a braze weld seam and a few small holes. Its a pretty sloppy weld job. (Ill include pictures later) I was planning to not go with the vinyl top and keep it as a hard top but this might change me. What do you guys think? Should I try to fix this or hide it with the top. I have never done a vinyl top before, is it hard to do?

Thanks for any help

Evan
 
I like the vinyl tops, I have them on 3 of my cars, all original, I think they look nice, plus, less paint to wax!!!!
 
I used to not like vinyl tops at all...In fact, I hated them...BUT now I'm actually starting to like them, and I'm thinking about installing a black one on my dart, IF I decide to paint it red...lol
 
My car came with one and it did it damage. But I also love the look of a vinyl top. If you dont like stripes and hood blackouts then it is a way to break up the color.
 
If the car came with a vinyl top you should put one on.
 
I've hated them for years and years.....but mostly because I know the damage they do to the metal underneath, and especially around the windows. However, I'm starting to warm up to them again.....lol....after 30 years.

I guess on a garaged car that won't see much moisture, it's not such a bad thing. Plus, it looks so retro.......cool. I like yellow cars with black or white tops and blue cars with white tops......red with black......nice contrasts.
 
It was burgundy with a white top, I like the idea of a black top.

Thanks for all of the help
Evan
 
What do you guys think about using spray on truck bed liner instead of the vinyl. My boss plans to do it on his 70' chvelle, and I was just looking through a year catolog and saw that they were selling it a page from their tops.

Evan
 
Evan Pratt said:
What do you guys think about using spray on truck bed liner instead of the vinyl. My boss plans to do it on his 70' chvelle, and I was just looking through a year catolog and saw that they were selling it a page from their tops.

Evan
Click to expand...

It might look okay from 20' away or on a Chebby :sign10:, but I wouldn't do it!

Vinyl tops look great IMO. Good luck with your decision.
 
i like the vinyl tops , please dont use the spray bedliner, someone did that to a dart around here and it just looked really low class and cheesy. vinyl tops are fairly easy to install, just make sure you dont trim too much before the sun gets a chance to shrink it down like i did on my old challenger.
 
Use the vinyl top to hide all the crappy factory stuff. They didn't take the time to finish the roof well when if they were installing vinyl.
They are only $90 at Paddock and are very easy to install. The tricky part is the trim on the roof rail.

Here are a couple pics of when I did mine.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=90192
 
The vinyl top would depend on if it is a coupe or fastback, they look good on coupes but not so good on a fastback.

I would first get rid of any and all brazing, if you do your body work over it, it will eventually start to bubble. There is a chemical reaction between brazing and body fillers that cause it to bubble, it may take several years, but it will happen.
 
oneway71 said:
Use the vinyl top to hide all the crappy factory stuff. They didn't take the time to finish the roof well when if they were installing vinyl.
They are only $90 at Paddock and are very easy to install. The tricky part is the trim on the roof rail.

Here are a couple pics of when I did mine.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=90192
Click to expand...


I cant find any top on their site. Can anybody tell me the best place to get top stuff?
 
Not to hijack your post, but if I wanted to put a vinyl top on my 67 barracuda what trim pieces would I need. The roof is wavy. I was just thinking of covering it with vinyl, plus I like the way the look.
 
Evan Pratt said:
I cant find any top on their site. Can anybody tell me the best place to get top stuff?
Click to expand...

In their catalog I used the universal top. They have 2 sizes in two colors.

As you can see in my pic it is way oversized and will need to be trimmed. I used the padded one, I figure it hides the bumps better than just the vinyl.

listing shows 62-74 all except 68-74 charger. Padded part # black L60 White L633 non padded part # Black L60N White L633N

They also list lots of model specific #'s Under Boar Grain vinyl top.
I called them and spoke with them in person and they gave me all kinds of measurements. I wanted to make sure the universal would fit my car.
 
Also Vinyl tops are listed in the interior section. (paddock)
Boar grain vinyl tops.
67-69 cuda notchback part # L12 $140
67-69 cuda fastback part # L13 $140
add w for white, b for black, pw for pearl white, agr for antique green.
 
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