I want to sand off the black paint on the edge of my t-tops cause there sctratched up. How would i go about doing this? What type of grit sand paper do you use?...or do you not use that at all..?

 

I'd guess you could sand it with something rough, but not to rough.

Before you do that tape off the glass area so that if you go to far with the sandpaper it only hits tape and doesnt F-Up the glass

then rough it up pretty good till scratches and such are out, its not metal that will corrode so Im guessing you wouldnt havent to get every drop off.

spray it up with some thick primer and paint it black.

I've never done it before but that is how I'm guessing would get you the best results.

any other procedures anyone?

 

86FyrBrd is half right. Yes tape the glass off , not only to stop overspray but to avoid sanding the glass. I would suggest you remove ALL the old paint first, use 240, then 320, then 400 grit paper. Alot of times when you re-paint something like this the old paint will lift, ruining you fresh paint. As for the thick layer of primer...I wouldn't do that either. Strip it right down to bear metal. Give it 3 even coats of primer and let dry, sand with 600 grit sand paper lightly and paint. I would go with 3 coats of paint. You don't want to many layers, that allows it to scratch to easy. Remember let the sand paper do the work. don't srcub to hard.

 

Thanks for the help guys. Im glad i didnt start it without asking first....lol......i wouldnt have a roof left.

 

sounds like alot of work, but its worth it... mine kinda need a repaint.. darn sun!!

 

Hey, i just painted mine today I guess i did it right. I used rough steel wool instead of sandpaper and went down to fine to take it off when i first got the car cause they were scratched real bad. I polished the aluminum and kept it that way for a while but it looked too much like the 2nd generation Firebirds so i decided to repaint. Heres what it looked like polished:

 

after painting: (i still need to paint the mouldings on the car so i left the paper on the glass)

 

wow.....we got pics too....thanks alot guys. Now i can get a jist of what exactly to do. Makes me kinda mad too...cause they were just painted along with the car.......then.........came outa the mall one night only to find someone scratched them. Its weird too.......person who did it must have been eyeing my car or something cause they didnt use a key and put a fine scratch into them.....looks like they did it with something more wider cause the scratches are about 1/8 to almost a 1/4 inch wide.

 

yea i got to repaint mine, i guess after 20 yrs ya gotta repaint them some time i think i might do the ttops and then the bar in the middle of the car becuz we were goin to paint that when we did my car but that never happened.

oh yeah what kinda paint should i use. like a glossy paint, flat , what? i think it would look good with a gloss too it. also should i buy a sandable primer too?

 

I need to do that too. I'm thinking about using gloss black to match my car. I'm also polishing my t-tops (one down, one to go). I saw Redraif's car in person a while back and she painted her's red to match her car. It looked pretty good. I PMed her and asked her how she did it but I never got a reply. Maybe she'll post here?

 

in this pic you can see my polished lexan t-tops with repainted moldings. worked fine just as 86FyrBrd described it.

 

i'm with ya'll... i've gotta get mine painted. lol, i've gotta get the whole care painted... but still. would you still use the same procedure on the metal fame on the hatch glass? mines getting a little rusty and i'm wanting to get it cleaned up before too long. i figure i could do it all at the same time. thanks!

doc

 

that is what i did for my t top bar.....i have a pic too