Shaving vinyl

[packman]

Does anybody know how to take the vinyl cover off of the rear half of a CV roof? My ma's CV has this chrome hold down strip that I see on most CV's and GM's (I once heard that this is why they're called CVs because of the chrome-crown). I don't know where to start disassembling the vinyl. I would like to do as much clean-up work as possible before I send the CV to the body shop this spring. Thanks in advance for any help.
Packman

[88Vic]

Is the vinyl in bad shape? If not then why do you want to remove it? And this is off topic, but did they make box Panthers with full vinyl/cloth roofs?

[JumboFriendly]

There are several threads on this, searching may be helpful.

The chrome strip is held on by nuts on the underside of the roof, the headliner must come out to access these. There will be holes that must be patched after that strip is removed.

The vinyl can be peeled off, there will be glue residue left behind that will have to be cleaned away with a solvent or sanded off. There is a large unfinished body seam that will have to be filled on both sides. There will also be a hole on each side for the B-pillar lights, which will have to be filled.

B-pillar hole:



Unfinished seam (look along the top):



It should be noted that those pics were after several hours of bodywork.

[packman]

The vinyl roof is in okay shape, however, there is a portion of it that is relatively new; like somebody did a half-assed job of replacing it or maybe some vandalism. Whatever the case maybe, there are hundreds of small cracks in the rest of it and I was never too crazy about vinyl roofs anyway. My camera skills are shaky at best so it is hard to see the condition of the roof. I would like one solid paint job when it is all said and done. Every car that I have had that had a vinyl roof was badly rusted underneath; so I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is the case with my ma's CV.
Packman

[JumboFriendly]

Nice car. I love slicktop boxes, and I think that one will look great without that vinyl. Just be prepared for a lot of work (if you can do it yourself), or a good bit of cash (if you can't) to do it right.

[boXman]

Only GMQ's, TC's, and some rare CV's have those b pillar lights.

[nitroracer]

Did anyone try re-attaching the trim for the rear window once the vinyl was removed? Im thinking about painting my roof white from front to back rather than vinyl-I think some 50s-60s had setups like this.

[grandpaslincoln]

Is the vinyl in bad shape? If not then why do you want to remove it? And this is off topic, but did they make box Panthers with full vinyl/cloth roofs?

Yes.

I know some TC's did, not sure about the vics or the marqs

[JumboFriendly]

Only GMQ's, TC's, and some rare CV's have those b pillar lights.

My bad. I don't own a CV yet, so I'm not real familiar with them.

[Grand Marquis GT]

Wow, I love those wheels!

And of course, those bodywork shots are of te original GMGT

[boXman]

Yes LTD/CV/GMQ/Marquis had full vinyl tops, mainly in the early years (which is why I included the base model names of both).

[packman]

Thanks for the responses and yes I was too lazy to actually search for passed threads on this subject, next time perhaps. Thank you for the pictures Jumbofriendly; I had a feeling that would be close to the end result of taking off the vinyl. I am just looking to doing this work a few days before I send the car off. I will probably clean it up some as well. Hopefully this will make it easier for the body shop to work with. I just can't paint or go crazy with the body work myself without a functional garage. Almost all of my neighbors are lawn jockeys and don't care for us gearhead types and whenever I do major cosmetic work there are problems. Thanks again for all of the helpful responses!
Packman

[88MercWagon]

Would it be possible to reattatch the b-pillar lights after taking the top off?

[86bbub]

i did and i think it was easier than filling the holes, the lights just bolted right back in place but dont look the best, probably going to fill them next summer when i redo all of the body work on BBUB, but they dont look that bad

[interceptor1985]

MORE PICS!!!!!!!!!