My name is Shawn and I just recently got my hands on a 68 cougar out here in Hawaii. I’ve started the restomod process and would really like to have a vinyl top on my cat.
Have any of you out there ever put a vinyl top on a cat that did not have one originally? I guess its possible that the holes a lurking under bondo or that they are there (I suppose we will see when its stripped down for paint) but just in case, I was wondering if anyone out there may have a template or know where I can get a template to get the holes right for the trim pieces around the car. West Coast has the used trim pieces as well as the wider drip molding, but could not help me with placement of trim holes. They suggested I reach out to you guys on this forum, so here I am reaching out and asking for help or any advice and guidance you might be able to give me.
Had my buddy start body and paint this month. As we started sanding around some trouble areas we noticed a layer of surace rust under the entire paint surface. So, naturally, we decided to take the entire car down to bare metal. As we did this, we found a couple interesting things. 1 was the riof section of the car was joined together with a layer of lead. 2 was that the holes for a vinyl top trim was also present, also covered/plugged by same lead. So, apparently, these all came with holes for trim but where leaded over in the event it was ordered as a hard top. So if you’re planning on adding vinyl too to your car, the holes are there, just have to sand down in the areas they go to find the already factory drilled holes. Hope this helps, as it was a unexpected up side to having to take care down to bare metal.
Most cars of that era had lead filling where the roof joins the C pillars. In a lot of cases the lead was not finished off as well in this area for a vinyl top as it would be on a car with a painted roof. My parents had a 75 Montego with a vinyl roof and you could see an inch-wide indentation in the vinyl where the lead fill was.
Personally, I would leave the holes filled and paint the roof with the rest of the car.