Daft vinyl top question

[MoparBrit]

I need to pull the vinyl top as I have just a couple of bubbles on the edge of one side. I thought I'd go ahead and remove it all together. So, question is how is the best way?

What about the trim? How does that come off and will I be left with holes to try and fill where the trim attached?

Last one. The screen mouldings, do they fit right back on just less the vinyl top or would I have to buy different?

Thanks for any help.

Cheers

 

[H22A4]

Are you putting a new vinyl top on? If not, then you're going to need to fill a few holes (5 if I recall) and remove (10 or so) trim studs around the rear chrome trim. There will also be two holes to fill for the front chrome trim that mount on the A-pillars. Here are a few pics when I removed mine.... the plastic clips are likely to be quite brittle but you can get new ones from R/T Specialties. The chrome trim that surrounds the windshield and rear window can be re-used regardless if you put a vinyl top back on or not but you will want to buy new trim clips since the existing ones might be a rough shape. You will need to remove the glass to get the trim clips off.

 

[BigRichieO]

After reading this post I think I might be in a little trouble, you say to remove the old windshield trim clips you have to take out the glass?

Let me tell you all a little story... I had a guy who I thought was pretty sharp and a good body and restoration guy paint my car, he took all the trim off and I thought he would put everything back together after painting the car. Eleven months later and the guy was still not finished so I decided to pick the car up and finish the trim mostly myself with a little help from him. I was confused on how the window trim was going to go back in so I called him and he came over to help. Some of the pieces went in but were very loose and others would not clip in at all. I watched him battle with it for about 2 hours on two different days, then finally we come to the comclusion that the clips were either to old and or were damaged when the trim was removed, so the solution is that I have to get new trim clips. I looked and thought the same thing about "how am I going to get the old ones out", the paint expert assured me that it would be simple and when we got the new clips we would see the trick to getting the old ones out.

I'm glad find out that the trick will be to remove the glass and to not let this knucklehead touch my car any more. Here are some pictures of the mess I have going so far... I least I have this great site to help me with the project.

 

[H22A4]

After reading this post I think I might be in a little trouble, you say to remove the old windshield trim clips you have to take out the glass?

Let me tell you all a little story... I had a guy who I thought was pretty sharp and a good body and restoration guy paint my car, he took all the trim off and I thought he would put everything back together after painting the car. Eleven months later and the guy was still not finished so I decided to pick the car up and finish the trim mostly myself with a little help from him. I was confused on how the window trim was going to go back in so I called him and he came over to help. Some of the pieces went in but were very loose and others would not clip in at all. I watched him battle with it for about 2 hours on two different days, then finally we come to the comclusion that the clips were either to old and or were damaged when the trim was removed, so the solution is that I have to get new trim clips. I looked and thought the same thing about "how am I going to get the old ones out", the paint expert assured me that it would be simple and when we got the new clips we would see the trick to getting the old ones out.

I'm glad find out that the trick will be to remove the glass and to not let this knucklehead touch my car any more. Here are some pictures of the mess I have going so far... I least I have this great site to help me with the project.

Don't let that mouth breathing, knuckle dragging ape near your car again if you want a proper job done. The glass does need to come out to replace any rusted/broken trim clips that hold the chrome trim on around the glass. The clips are held in with screws and unless that dude has a magic screwdriver, how's he going to remove the screws when in most cases, the screws are flush up against the side of the weatherstripping? Here's a pic of the windshield removed and the old trim clips still attached.

Might as well order a new windshield and rear window gaskets/weatherstripping as well. It makes the window removal easier and since you've gone this far, why re-install a 30+ year old gaskets?

 

[RedFish]

Cut the nuckleheads some slack. Those trim clips are made of tempered spring stel then coated with a thin laquer. They rust ! They dont turn loose of the trim very easy either or we would see more of it on the roadside.
If a car is only 10 years old you might remove the trim and get it back on secured with 80% of the clips. At 40 years old... the glass will come out to replace the clips.

 

[chuckwagon2004]

So you just pop the molding off of the clips with a trim removal tool????? Im about to take mine off for paint and a new top ...

 

[H22A4]

So you just pop the molding off of the clips with a trim removal tool????? Im about to take mine off for paint and a new top ...

Yes, but take your time as there might be a lot of butyl (that black stuff that after all these years still feels like soft bubble gum) on the clips or between the clips and trim.

 

[MoparBrit]

Rattssss!!!! I didn't want to have to get into removing glass. Not sure that is something I'll be able to do so this sounds an expensive issue. Was going to remove the top and leave it off all together. Has a few rust bubbles just starting on the bottom edge of the trim on one side. Thought I'd just remove the top and hope to just clean it up, get it painted and then have the screen trim put back on. Hmmmmm. Time to think about this now.

Thanks all for the great posts and H22A4 for the great pics! What a board this is!
Cheers

 

[BigRichieO]

I agree Brit, thanks for the advice and information guys, I wish I would have asked earlier though, I had the front windshield replaced and could have changed out the clips then.

Thanks MoparBrit for the original post, I have learned a very valuable lesson here. Ask for advise from the experts first then do the work. Thanks again guys.

Rich