vinyl or no vinyl

[LTDMan83]

Hey I took that pic!

Nice Pic! I knew that it came from someone on GMN just wasn't sure who. Did you strip the Vinyl off the top, or was it already like that?

Thanks for the quick tutorial, mang. Is that feature the reason why some cars seem to have the rear window at a different angle (more vertical)?

Coach Roof slicktop is actually kind of a neat idea .... I wonder how a person would make that work .....

Yes, I believe the Coach Rear window is angled slightly more Vertically than the regular one.


As for a CR Slicktop, I suppose I would start off by building a frame for the rear window out of square steel tubing or the like, welding that in place on the body, then making templates for the outer sheetmetal pieces out of cardboard, based somewhat on the shape of the Vinyl which normally covers the outer sections of the coach roof rear window.

After you had designed and fabb'ed the outer pieces, it would only be a matter of welding them on and smoothing everything out to be nice and flat with the surrounding Roof and C-Pillars. You would also have to modify the Interior Headliner piece to completely cover all your work on the inside. It wouldn't be an easy time, but nothing worth doing ever is.

[Bowman85merc]

well this sould make alot of you happy but the price shoot up for the top so we made it a slick-top i will put pics up tomarrow. it turned out beter than i thought it would

[Grand Marquis GT]

LtdMang, I took that pic in a junkyard in Atlanta.

Pics, mang!!!

[1987cp]

Yay! Slicktop FTW!

[Bowman85merc]

well here are some shots of my slicktop for now, im not done with it yet, i still dont know if it will look good but it looks pretty good for now, what do you guys think... and you guys wont believe what i happened to find at the junkyard

[biglinc1]

cool......... but dude what about the opera lights, will they work on a slick top or you thinking about just leaving those off.

[Bowman85merc]

I dont know yet, but id really like to use them , but if that doesnt happen ill just weld a metal plate in there, but im trying to think of a way to make it work lol

[Grand Marquis GT]

Wow, that looks great!

Be sure to get some chrome rear window trim, some off a box cop car will work.

[1987cp]

Looking pretty good there! So what's the synopsis about the differences between the different quarter-window trim? (I think that was one thing I was asking about earlier ...)

For the B-pillar coach lights, some from a Colony Park wagon should definitely work ... someone remind me, how are the ones for the vinyl roof cars different? Personally, I've been kicking around the notion of trying to flush-mount my coach lights ... saw an article a while back on a guy sort of molding in the third brake light on his Chevy pickup, shaping the lens to match the contour of the back of the roof and finishing with a couple coats of body color so that when the light's not on you can't tell that it's there. Just seems like it'd be a slick body mod if I could figure it out.

[Bowman85merc]

we held up each window trim to see which would look better original or chrome

[88Vic]

Hell yeah, slicktop is the only way to fly. Vinyl looks bad IMO and water gets underneath and rusts the roof so......

vinyl top =

But if you can make sure the vinyl doesn't let any water in and remains in like new condition and is a full top then i'm all for it, but that's extremely unlikely. The half top or coach roof options are just to me.

[biglinc1]

Hell yeah, slicktop is the only way to fly.

vinyl top =

The half top or coach roof options are just to me.

you wouldn't put a coach 1/2 top or a vinyl roof on teh pickup :p

[1987cp]

we held up each window trim to see which would look better original or chrome

So the original wasn't chrome?

[Bowman85merc]

nope, mine was painted the same color as the car, but i happened to get lucky and found a 81-82 ltd 2 door at the junkyard and bought the chrome ones, so im thinkin on using the chrome ones.

[Grand Marquis GT]

Bowmang, does that LTD 2dr at the yard have crank windows?