Useing landau trim without vinyl??

[Lazarus]

Got my self in my classic screwed situation. Buying a cheap car that needs paint.....Had a local body guy swing by today. Told me my cutlass ain't even a good donor. If I care about financial responsibility I'd junk it immediately. Lol even though there is no rust anywhere on the frame or floors. Got the classic door frame rust and roof where the laundu top was. Still with ordering new doors all the weather strips and window sweeps. $7500.00 for him to properly do the body work as a normal paint job. $7500.00 gets me a hell of a Cutlass on Craigslist. Or for $1500. I get a Da job and everything for a 2 shot matte black finish. With out him touching the rivits for trim. Today I took stripper to the landau trim. Came out shining like a diamond..... Wondering If I could simply put the shinny trim back on?? $800.00 for the top and a brand new top on a cheap paintjob may look stupid..even $2300.00 for all that gets me a very nice Gbody
..any thoughts

 

[565bbchevy]

I personally would keep the vinyl off and finish the conversion of making it a hardtop, putting the trim on without a vinyl would look exactly like it sounds a vinyl top car without a vinyl.
Also not having a vinyl top opens up more options for paint color since it is one less thing to try and match.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Converting a vinyl top to non vinyl is a lot of work. First you will need quarter windows from a non vinyl cars as they have thicker trim to fill the larger gap. Second the factory did poorer body work on vinyl top cars because the vinyl would hide it. Instead of lead in the roof seams the factory used low grade bondo that always cracks and rusts out the weld seam. The factory panel fitment under the filler is also very poor, the factory just slapped bondo over big sheetmetal gaps, you will have weld these gaps shut to prevent future filler cracks.

 

[565bbchevy]

I agree that you will need hardtop quarter windows which would be needed anyways if you were going to not have a vinyl top but still use the landau trim to cover up the rivets however many vinyl tops were also done at conversion shops so it would have left the factory as any other hardtop car.
My Monte had flawless paint and bodywork under the vinyl once I got all the glue off, other than needing to mig up rivet holes no other bodywork was required and it also had the rivets to hold the rear window trim on, now I did not feel it was all that much work but regardless even if it had been the vision I had for my car did not include the vinyl.
Now if you have a factory installed vinyl and find issues with seams and fitment then this seems like the time to do the repair properly and why cover it up with another rust trap once done.