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Corvette
C4 Forum
1988 Convertible for sunny day drives
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<blockquote data-quote="Tourmax" data-source="post: 251691" data-attributes="member: 5304"><p>A PO changed out the top on my 88 at some point in the cars past. The car is supposed to be triple black, but they installed a saddle colored top.</p><p></p><p>Thats irritating (its in good shape so I can’t justify the cost of replacing it yet), but thats not the worst of it.</p><p></p><p>When they installed it (or had someone install it), they did a piss poor job of it and used products that are “sketchy” at best.</p><p></p><p>The biggest irritation was the cover on the rear bow was too high and they used what looks like hardware store grade contact cement.</p><p></p><p>So it had the “peeling corners” look and a good portion of the adhesive had come loose and allowed the cover to shift in several places. The layers and “tabs” had also been installed poorly, with some of them curled back on themselves and bunched up in other places. It just looked like crap all around.</p><p></p><p> Heres a few examples of improper installation procedures/products that gives you the “lifting edges” on the rear bow:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]84577[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]84578[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]84579[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Just ruins the entire look of the car to my eye. Makes it look shabby, poorly assembled or just plain neglected. It doubly irritates me becuase I put the top up everytime I leave the car in a parking lot to go into a store or restaurant. Every time I put it up, that crap installation just pokes me right in the eye!</p><p></p><p>I pulled the cover off the rear bow and all it took was a gentle tug. Even the adhesive that was still “holding” was barely hanging on. Then, several days of cleaning the adhesive off the cover and the weather strip channel.</p><p></p><p>Tip: if you pull your top off and see a yellowish adhesive, its probably some PO committing the sin of contact cement. Get yourself a plastic gasket scraper and a tin of lacquer thinner. Soak a rag with the thinner (make sure you have good ventilation) and hold it against the cement. It will soften and you can “more or less) easily scrape it off. Just keep working your way across the bow, soak, scrape, repeat. Don’t worry about the black paint on the bow itself stripping off. The bow is aluminum and its not black paint: it’s anodized. Lacquer thinner shouldn’t effect it.</p><p></p><p>Make sure you cover the rear deck painted surfaces with something nice and thick like a beach towel or a good paint drop cloth. Lacquer thinner may damage the paint and at the very least, you don’t want to drop your scraper over the painted surfaces or drag a button on your clothes over it.</p><p></p><p>To re-bond the top to the rear bow, source some 3m 8005 adhesive. This is the correct bonding agent for convertible tops.</p><p></p><p>DON’T USE CONTACT CEMENT! IT’S NOT PROPERLY FORMULATED FOR THIS APPLICATION AND IT <strong><em><u>WILL</u></em></strong> EVENTUALLY SHIFT OR FAIL COMPLETELY! Leave the contact cement for applying wood veneer and countertop laminates, its not for automotive applications.</p><p></p><p>Spread a nice thin coat on the top fabric and the rear bow. Be careful you don’t get it on your fingers and touch the outer surface of the top, it will bond and put a big black mark in the fabric you won’t be able to get out. Don’t worry about putting it on the underside surface, it won’t soak through to the other side.</p><p></p><p>Only put it on the underside of the rear bow, you don’t need it on the top surface.</p><p></p><p>Allow it to go “tacky” and then start rolling the cover over and under the rear bow.</p><p></p><p> I use foil tape to hold it in place while the adhesive cures. It will hold when you first touch both surfaces together, but it takes 24hrs to get to full cure. if you don’t do something to hold the cover in place, the tension in the fabric can “pull” itself up and around the rear bow edge. This is usually how you get those curled corners even if you do everything else right: the adhesive isn’t given enough time to get to full cure.</p><p></p><p>the end result of all this work?</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]84571[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Nice and tight and straight right across the entire rear bow. Theres a couple spots that aren’t <em>exactly</em> right, but they should fall in line after leaving the top up (ie:stretched) for a couple days.</p><p></p><p>It’s a lot of “grunt work”, but worth it to get the top “right”.</p><p></p><p>When it gets laid up for winter this year I’ll have to peel and redo the front edge as well.</p><p></p><p>Yup, they got that wrong too….</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tourmax, post: 251691, member: 5304"] A PO changed out the top on my 88 at some point in the cars past. The car is supposed to be triple black, but they installed a saddle colored top. Thats irritating (its in good shape so I can’t justify the cost of replacing it yet), but thats not the worst of it. When they installed it (or had someone install it), they did a piss poor job of it and used products that are “sketchy” at best. The biggest irritation was the cover on the rear bow was too high and they used what looks like hardware store grade contact cement. So it had the “peeling corners” look and a good portion of the adhesive had come loose and allowed the cover to shift in several places. The layers and “tabs” had also been installed poorly, with some of them curled back on themselves and bunched up in other places. It just looked like crap all around. Heres a few examples of improper installation procedures/products that gives you the “lifting edges” on the rear bow: [ATTACH type="full" alt="D79EFFD6-7258-4563-9BAF-1A936DBA9A19.jpeg"]84577[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="3150C8B0-9632-4A94-B516-9EFB559FD5C1.jpeg"]84578[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" alt="104A749F-0C63-43F9-B9D3-069384C7E549.png"]84579[/ATTACH] Just ruins the entire look of the car to my eye. Makes it look shabby, poorly assembled or just plain neglected. It doubly irritates me becuase I put the top up everytime I leave the car in a parking lot to go into a store or restaurant. Every time I put it up, that crap installation just pokes me right in the eye! I pulled the cover off the rear bow and all it took was a gentle tug. Even the adhesive that was still “holding” was barely hanging on. Then, several days of cleaning the adhesive off the cover and the weather strip channel. Tip: if you pull your top off and see a yellowish adhesive, its probably some PO committing the sin of contact cement. Get yourself a plastic gasket scraper and a tin of lacquer thinner. Soak a rag with the thinner (make sure you have good ventilation) and hold it against the cement. It will soften and you can “more or less) easily scrape it off. Just keep working your way across the bow, soak, scrape, repeat. Don’t worry about the black paint on the bow itself stripping off. The bow is aluminum and its not black paint: it’s anodized. Lacquer thinner shouldn’t effect it. Make sure you cover the rear deck painted surfaces with something nice and thick like a beach towel or a good paint drop cloth. Lacquer thinner may damage the paint and at the very least, you don’t want to drop your scraper over the painted surfaces or drag a button on your clothes over it. To re-bond the top to the rear bow, source some 3m 8005 adhesive. This is the correct bonding agent for convertible tops. DON’T USE CONTACT CEMENT! IT’S NOT PROPERLY FORMULATED FOR THIS APPLICATION AND IT [B][I][U]WILL[/U][/I][/B] EVENTUALLY SHIFT OR FAIL COMPLETELY! Leave the contact cement for applying wood veneer and countertop laminates, its not for automotive applications. Spread a nice thin coat on the top fabric and the rear bow. Be careful you don’t get it on your fingers and touch the outer surface of the top, it will bond and put a big black mark in the fabric you won’t be able to get out. Don’t worry about putting it on the underside surface, it won’t soak through to the other side. Only put it on the underside of the rear bow, you don’t need it on the top surface. Allow it to go “tacky” and then start rolling the cover over and under the rear bow. I use foil tape to hold it in place while the adhesive cures. It will hold when you first touch both surfaces together, but it takes 24hrs to get to full cure. if you don’t do something to hold the cover in place, the tension in the fabric can “pull” itself up and around the rear bow edge. This is usually how you get those curled corners even if you do everything else right: the adhesive isn’t given enough time to get to full cure. the end result of all this work? [ATTACH type="full" alt="67C4D6FA-0EEF-4384-B205-36217DE9F877.jpeg"]84571[/ATTACH] Nice and tight and straight right across the entire rear bow. Theres a couple spots that aren’t [I]exactly[/I] right, but they should fall in line after leaving the top up (ie:stretched) for a couple days. It’s a lot of “grunt work”, but worth it to get the top “right”. When it gets laid up for winter this year I’ll have to peel and redo the front edge as well. Yup, they got that wrong too…. [/QUOTE]
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1988 Convertible for sunny day drives
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