Vinyl Top Delete 87 Cutlass

[87Cuts]

Drkuhar just did it and has everything in his thread

First car reborn - GBodyForum - '78-'88 General Motors A/G-Body Community

So I pulled the cluster back out and tightened all the nuts behind the gauges, lightly skuffed the terminal on the plug, and pulled the guages out of their ports and gave the keepers a squeeze. The voltage gauge is reading properly and fuel guage is reading same as the sweep cluster did. Look...

gbodyforum.com

Going to check this out!!!!

 

[Drkuhar]

I used a cutoff wheel and nibbed the rivits off the top and sides and filler and lightly ground the spot and smoothed each one with filler. On the body seam I used metal to metal (it like bondo out of aluminum) and on the holes around the back window i ground them with an angle grinder, used a ball punch to ding in the rivet area slightly and used metal to metal on those spots. then go over the metal to metal with lightweight filler to smooth out nice. I order my surround clips , the lower clips, and the screws posted above on ebay

 

[87Cuts]

I used a cutoff wheel and nibbed the rivits off the top and sides and filler and lightly ground the spot and smoothed each one with filler. On the body seam I used metal to metal (it like bondo out of aluminum) and on the holes around the back window i ground them with an angle grinder, used a ball punch to ding in the rivet area slightly and used metal to metal on those spots. then go over the metal to metal with lightweight filler to smooth out nice. I order my surround clips , the lower clips, and the screws posted above on ebay

Good looking out. Going to ground down all the rivets and clear up the rust from that horrible top this weekend. I’ll post the pics in my build. I plan on keeping the same apron and getting the screws and stuff from eBay. Super helpful thank you again

 

[Drkuhar]

Good looking out. Going to ground down all the rivets and clear up the rust from that horrible top this weekend. I’ll post the pics in my build. I plan on keeping the same apron and getting the screws and stuff from eBay. Super helpful thank you again

when you repair over the body seam and those holes, dont use regular filler. use a product that has some strength to it first then smooth with a coat of lightweight. I went with metal to metal because it is not going to crack out if any flex happens.

 

[TURNA]

I used a cutoff wheel and nibbed the rivits off the top and sides and filler and lightly ground the spot and smoothed each one with filler. On the body seam I used metal to metal (it like bondo out of aluminum) and on the holes around the back window i ground them with an angle grinder, used a ball punch to ding in the rivet area slightly and used metal to metal on those spots. then go over the metal to metal with lightweight filler to smooth out nice. I order my surround clips , the lower clips, and the screws posted above on ebay

When you coming to do mine??!!??!

 

[87Cuts]

when you repair over the body seam and those holes, dont use regular filler. use a product that has some strength to it first then smooth with a coat of lightweight. I went with metal to metal because it is not going to crack out if any flex happens.

Good looking out. I’m going to MIG weld the holes myself and use Everglass over the body seams and welds. Definitely agree, lightweight filler has no place on anything stress related. Have you tried Kitty Hair? Also great stuff. Used it to recreate body lines and over weld seams on this MC....
Holds up to lots of abuse:

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[Injectedcutty]

Alright, here is the quick and dirty. To switch to a hardtop you'll need hardtop quarter windows. I learned the hard way when I shattered one of the vinyl top windows on mine during teardown. You'll also need the rear window trim which is 5 pieces, along with the screw studs 565 linked already. Then the trunk filler panel rivets need to be ground down, and you'll need 8 of the clips in the pic below.
I had to do a whole roof skin swap due to rust on the rear roof area. My car was originally a hardtop so it already had the trim under the vinyl. We cut the old roof at the lead joint, melted it out, then grafted the skin from a donor 87 onto the structure. Here are a few pics I just snapped. Let me know if you need more.

 

[565bbchevy]

I had to do a whole roof skin swap due to rust on the rear roof area. My car was originally a hardtop so it already had the trim under the vinyl.

I must have got lucky because there was not a spec of rust under mine and even the paint was nice, if I didn't have to fill the holes they drilled for the molding I would have left it.

 

[Injectedcutty]

I must have got lucky because there was not a spec of rust under mine and even the paint was nice, if I didn't have to fill the holes they drilled for the molding I would have left it.

You're definitely lucky! Mine wasn't horrible, but there was enough rust pinholes and surface rust that was starting to pit that the bodyguy begged me to find a whole roof.

 

[87Cuts]

Alright, here is the quick and dirty. To switch to a hardtop you'll need hardtop quarter windows. I learned the hard way when I shattered one of the vinyl top windows on mine during teardown. You'll also need the rear window trim which is 5 pieces, along with the screw studs 565 linked already. Then the trunk filler panel rivets need to be ground down, and you'll need 8 of the clips in the pic below.
I had to do a whole roof skin swap due to rust on the rear roof area. My car was originally a hardtop so it already had the trim under the vinyl. We cut the old roof at the lead joint, melted it out, then grafted the skin from a donor 87 onto the structure. Here are a few pics I just snapped. Let me know if you need more.View attachment 127825View attachment 127826View attachment 127827View attachment 127828View attachment 127829

Solid! Ima try to save my roof with some patchwork, it’s already oil canning beyond noticeable as well .

Thanks for the write up and the clip pictures!