Fact or Fiction?

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69signetv8

69signetv8

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Vinyl tops.....I've been told in the past that a lot or some Vinyl top cars were produced due to the companies having problems with putting the upper body seams together and in turn the vinyl made for a good cover up at the jointed area.
Did I take the worm, or is it possible? What your intake??? :dontknow:
 
i'm going with fiction here. it wouldn't make any sence to have a car come down an assembly line and then get a vinal top randomly slapped on it because they couldn't get the seems to line up right with the body joint. the top would hide a great deal but a bad seem i think would still show through if it was that bad. remember back in the day alot of cars were being ordered by the dealers and customers as well, so that means they were makeing alot of cars to "spec" . now they make them as needed and there are almost no "spec" cars made.
 
Vinyl was a beauty and confert option.and was a slick hard top too
Fiction. for shur. lead shur did work good for them :drinkers: :drinkers:
 
The only time that i heard of the body seams causing problems, were with the plymouth super bird. The vinyl top helped hide the terrible body work on the roof. It was a quick & inexpensive fix. Ever see a super bird with out a vinyl top.
 
mikedevore said:
The only time that i heard of the body seams causing problems, were with the plymouth super bird. The vinyl top helped hide the terrible body work on the roof. It was a quick & inexpensive fix. Ever see a super bird with out a vinyl top.
Click to expand...

Same with the Challenger SE
 

I've heard the same thing about the Superbirds, but how true it is I have no idea. :) Actually I very seldom ever have an idea. But I like the white vinyl roof on my Vart, and when I removed the old one the rood edge seams were in great shape.
 
FACT!!!!!......when they put the roof of the car onto the body and the seams did NOT line up then they would put a vinyl top on...VERY true!!!! :thumblef:
 
So when they came down the assem line,
they pick'ed witch one was going to be a vinyl ?
I have a new vew on it now!
Sid Jim mike, :scratch: :coffee2:
 
have you ever ripped off a vinyl roof before??....you can see where the roof and body dont match up....rememeber,they didnt use BONDO,they used lead and it was too costly and it wasnt time effientent(SC) to stop and try to fix it so they COVERED IT!!! :thumblef:
 
mikesduster said:
have you ever ripped off a vinyl roof before??....you can see where the roof and body dont match up....rememeber,they didnt use BONDO,they used lead and it was too costly and it wasnt time effientent(SC) to stop and try to fix it so they COVERED IT!!! :thumblef:
Click to expand...
That's odd, Cause my Swinger has/had a vinyl top and the filler was not lead, it was some type of bondo.
 
mikedevore said:
The only time that i heard of the body seams causing problems, were with the plymouth super bird. The vinyl top helped hide the terrible body work on the roof. It was a quick & inexpensive fix. Ever see a super bird with out a vinyl top.
Click to expand...
:thumblef:
 
I feel that it may be FACT and it wasn't just the Mopars. I just peeled the vinyl roof off a 70 Buick GS and couldn't believe the cracks and poor quality at the seam.
 
Mopower71 said:
I thought they just didn't worry so much about the seam if the car was getting a top.
Click to expand...
my thought exactly. why would you worry what the seam was like if you knew that it was going to be a vinal top car...although i won't rule it out i'm still sticking with fiction. can't see them taking and putting tops on like that. it would be too easy to jump on this.
 
I have heard this before and tend to believe it. My 70 charger has no top.
you dont see many chargers without one. If you look back at all the
promo's they ran that included tops ie, white hat specials etc. it makes
you wonder what thier motivation was!
 
mikedevore said:
The only time that i heard of the body seams causing problems, were with the plymouth super bird. The vinyl top helped hide the terrible body work on the roof. It was a quick & inexpensive fix. Ever see a super bird with out a vinyl top.
Click to expand...
i have, but obviously it had alot of work put into it to fix that up, unless it wasnt a factory screw up...wow i never though of this being the reason for vinel tops weird :wack:
 
i just pulled bought a 71 swinger and the vinyl top wasn't on it when i bought it but all the glue is still there it hasn't been touched and it seems to me like the seam is in very good condition..... i wouldn't quite call this one a fact i mean it could have been done but i don't believe that they would just slap on a vinyl top to cover up a flaw in their cars
 
Well, it looks like fiction after all. Found this on line. :book:


Vinyl roof refers to a vinyl covering for an automobile's top. This covering was originally designed to give something of the appearance of a convertible to models with a fixed roof, but eventually it evolved into a styling statement in its own right. Vinyl roofs were most popular in the American market, and they are considered one of the period hallmarks of 1970s Detroit cars. Vinyl roofs were also very popular on European- (especially UK-) and Japanese-built cars during the 1970s, and tended to be applied to sporting or luxury trim versions of standard saloon (sedan) models by pretty much the whole gamut of manufacturers.
 
Rememebr asking my dad about it as he was in a dealership in the early 70's he said vinyl was almost a status thing as it was the in thing to have.

Ever seen the early 80's Miradas that look like a convertable but arn't? I think thats just the most exagerated version of a vinyl top.

But the Daytonas and Superbirds DID have to have the tops to hide the lead work from the changeing in the back windows and a-pillars. Thats why they always have them.
 
This sounds like a "which came first, the chicken, or the egg?" issue. Either they put Vinyl on the cars because the seam work was below par or they didn't bother with the seam work because they knew vinyl was going on it. I, personally, think the bad seams came to be because vinyl was going on it, for two reasons: first, not all of them had bad seam work, it looks to me like a 50/50 deal, and second, it just doesn't fit the Mopar method to say "Ah screw it, we'll just cover the thing up." Not to mention it seems like doing vinyl band-aid jobs would actually slow production being as how it would be different from what they had planned on.

Weren't the fender tags stamped and put on the car first thing? If so, woudldn't that be the answer right there?
 
I vote True! at least in the early/mid 70's anyways. how many 73 and up Darts do you see without a vinyl top? I can't think of any- when I pulled off the top on my 74 swinger I was discusted by the ?bondo? (more like bubble gum) when I finnally got it all removed the seam was about 1/2" to 1" deep in some places. So I went to the local Mopar Guru and asked him about it and he said Chrysler made the seams so crappy so that they could slam them togather faster without having to worry about things lining up as much. then the vinyl top covered up any flaws in "workmanship"
 
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