69 Chevelle vinyl top material

[Belair62]

Anyone know who has the most correct vinyl top material or kit for 69 Chevelle ?

[COPO]

I'm interested in the same info for a 69 Camaro.

[Woj]

I bought a vinyl top from Year One for my 69 Chevelle several years back. It has the correct grain and "swirl patterns" (looks like rows of swirls when waxing a car), but it had a thin layer of padding which I believe the originals did not have. The padding has the advantage of allowing the vinyl to shrink and expand. Every original 69 Chevelle with vinyl that I have ever seen had the back corners lift off the metal due to shrinkage. The new top I have does not have this problem.

Hope this info is helpful.

Phil Woj.

[Alss]

http://www.smsautofabrics.com/

My Friend Rich bought one from them formhis 70 Chevelle and it is a perfect match to the originals..the current repro ones have a different feel to them and are not quite like the originals. They are not cheap nor fast but very correct.

ALbert

[m22mike]

To my knowledge, all the repo tops are like Phil mentioned. the grain is ok, but but he backing is soft. The original backing material was a canvas like material, and very tough and hard. The new ones are backed with some cheezy fuzzy crap.
Next time you see a original GM top lightly touch it with your fingernails, it will be firm and hard compared to a new one. With a little practice you can spot a original to from 20 feet away.

[Belair62]

Al I looked at SMS last night but I couldn't find a reference to top material. How did Chevrolet keep the top material down in the drip rail area ?

[Keith Tedford]

How did they keep the vinyl down? They didn't. Vinyl tops out in the sun all the time soon shrunk and pulled up in the channels as well as on the bottom rear corners. There wasn't a whole lot for paint underneath either. We went to Florida in '68 and it seemed like every second vinyl top car had a big air pocket in the middle bulging the top up as they drove down the highway. In Oshawa it took 4 guys about one minute to install a top as the car went by on the drag chain. I'm amazed that the tops turned out as well as they did considering the time allowed. The guys were artists with scissors. There was one tool maker who kept their scissors razor sharp and it was a fairly steady job. We bought the vinyl top for our '72 Lemans Sport a few years ago and it was cloth backed rather than the fuzzy padding. Even though the vinyl was heavy, Doug got it on as tight as a glove. Sorry, I don't recall the manufacturer.

[Bill Rose]

SMS is the only place that I know of that has the correct material. I've seen several of their tops, and they are dead on, including the seam placement. I was told they bought the original material from GM. If the top is glued down correctly with contact cement, it should never be a problem. It should be glued to the inside of the drip rails too. Then the chrome on the drip rail holds the edges down too.

[68l30]

I know in 68.. on the Camaros they used a plastic strip in the gutter of the drip rail.....My car had them,and I've been lucky enough to have seen a few others....Very tough pieces to find today. Most broke due to the heat and went sailing down the road.......


Steve

[Belair62]

Thats why I asked..I had an original v-top 64 Impala and it had some type of strip on there too...now I need a recommendation from one of you Chicago boys for a local place I can trust to put the vinyl on my Chevelle !!