T-tops -- headliner ??

MYBAD79

MYBAD79

Moderator
Joined
Mar 23, 2008
Messages
6,939
Location
sunny Florida
OK, the headliners came loose once again. Apparently the glue I'm using is no good for Florida heat....

I am wondering: if I remove the headliner alltogether and grind down the headliner supports and smoothen the underside of the tops.... would it look like crap if I just paint the underide of the tops black ???

I sure would like the additional inch headroom.....
 
MYBAD79 said:
OK, the headliners came loose once again. Apparently the glue I'm using is no good for Florida heat....

I am wondering: if I remove the headliner alltogether and grind down the headliner supports and smoothen the underside of the tops.... would it look like crap if I just paint the underide of the tops black ???

I sure would like the additional inch headroom.....
Click to expand...

Would get pretty hot with this sun.

You may consider using an industrial strength Velcro.
I used it to temporarily mount some gauges to the dash and they fell off due to Florida heat.
I then used non glued velcro (for sew in) and epoxied it and it held well.

You could even epoxy "posts" on the bottom of the glass to accept trim screws.
I assume you are using the factory headliners.
 
I had this problem with glue releasing on my 90 vette with black carpet and high interior heat. I took hot glue sticks and melted them in a pan and then poured it on and the carpet hasn't been a problem since.
 
I don't recall ever playing with t-tops, but on the old '72 hard top, it was some sort of cardboard casting covered over with foam and vinyl, which held in place with velcro...what I found was the vinyl has shrunk and would not return to normal shape no matter what I did.....and so I finally gave up on the vinyl, peeled it off the liner with a heat gun, redid the foam outta a yard goods store only ~1/4" thick, then got some black fuzzy liner and spray glued over top of that for the final touch....I had to wet the base/cardboard to get it to assume the proper shape, set some weights on it out in the sunny driveway to dry.....

there were 3 pieces to it top and each sail panel.....

you maybe fighting the same thing if you have vinyl on your liner....

:crutches::friends:
 
What have you used already? If you're talking about securing the Velcro pads to the tops, maybe try JB weld epoxy for the glue? That stuff won't melt!
 
I'll try the 2 part epoxy. Too bad I don't have any 8115 leftover, that stuff would sure fix it for eternity......

without the headliners it is kinda ugly :(
 
It's worth it. At 6' 4", I still hit my head. Dam power seat makes it sit too high. Lucky it's mommas DD, not mine. Just the tours man. Just the tours.:cool:
 
i thought about grinding them smooth and just paint the underside. either black or body color.... I kinda think it's going to look like crap ... then again: if it does look like crap I can glue the stock headliners directly to the TTop surface ....I might give it a try.....
 
I have repro headliners for my 70's T-tops. They're red and look great. Only problem is they don't fit. The stock T-top liners have a slight concave shape. The repro headliners have an excessive concave shape, so that the nylon things are not strong enough to hold the t-tops in place. (the nylon "things" have a nylon rectangluar base with a lot of little nylon stalks with small nylon balls on the end) I've used industrial Velcro to also try to hold them in place, but the Velcro strips ultimately unstick. Gluing them in place so far has been my best idea. ...clamping them in place until the glue dries and maybe also heating them with a hot air gun to try to take out some of the excess concave shape.

......But reading this post suddenly gave me an idea. Somewhere in my garage, I have a pair of unused glass topped T-tops. I can use these! The style of these T-tops is that the edges of the T-tops are fiberglass just like the stock tops, but they have a curved glass panel in them also. I can avoid using the repro T-top headliners.
 
68/70Vette said:
I have repro headliners for my 70's T-tops. They're red and look great. Only problem is they don't fit. The stock T-top liners have a slight concave shape. The repro headliners have an excessive concave shape, so that the nylon things are not strong enough to hold the t-tops in place. (the nylon "things" have a nylon rectangluar base with a lot of little nylon stalks with small nylon balls on the end) I've used industrial Velcro to also try to hold them in place, but the Velcro strips ultimately unstick. Gluing them in place so far has been my best idea. ...clamping them in place until the glue dries and maybe also heating them with a hot air gun to try to take out some of the excess concave shape.

.
Click to expand...

I have reread the above several times, and for the life of me it seems that the repro company used a set of liners that had dried out vinyl, pulling the thing outta shape, and no way in HELL is that going to work....

since I had no way to work vinyl over my hardtop insert, I just used a nice fuzzy stretch material from a yard goods store....like I said, and it's been good for years.....
 
Im in the middle of removing all of the velcro things from my t-tops to get rid of the factory headliner... Definitely a proper process to make life easy when trying to get rid of the rivets and rivet plates on the inside. Pics coming once the glue on my new "low profile" headliner dries
 
I have an old set of stock T-tops with the same issue. I am planning on grinding down the mounting studs for the headliners and installing a layer of reflectix insulation with some 3-M spray adhesive, then covering that with some cloth.

At 6'2" the old headliners compromise too much head space.
 
Heres how I got rid of the plastic velcro things and their rivet plates...

First grind all of the SILVER rivets so you can pop off just the plastic velcro pieces. Once they are off, grind the rest of the rivet flush to the fiberglass. If you dont, they can get stuck when you try to get them out.

Once all of the velcro pieces are off and they are flush to the fiberglass, start with the rivet plate closest to your access hole. Take a punch and firmly tap each rivet through the hole. This should break the outside rivets off, allowing the metal rivet plate to fall freely into the frame. Shake the top to move the plate to your access hole and pull it out. Only do one at a time and punch them out in order closest to the access hole.

The rear part of the frame (I think) is much shallower than the front and is very easy to get the plates stuck in... try to shake everything towards the access hole by going around the front.
Also, since the rear part is so shallow, you have to be careful when you tap the two rivet plates out... I tapped a bit too hard and put a crack in my paint. :hissyfit:
The first top was a learning experience... I still have 2 plates that I think are stuck in the frame for good, along with a spider crack in the paint. The second top took all of 10 minutes once I had the method down. I dont think it looks too bad, it saves weight and gives more headroom. Plus it was cheaper than getting new headliners :2nd:

ttop.jpg
 
Heres one side done... Came out nice except I dont like the gap I have in the lower left corner. Cant see it when the tops are in, but that kind of stuff bugs the hell out of me. Id re-do it if I thought I had a chance in getting the epoxy I used to hold the panel on to separate from the skin :crap:
147c6c8b.jpg

Look at all that headroom!
90357f38.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top