hey, i had and still have the plastic ttops on my car, for plastic they are fairly clean. anyway my situation is the plastic ttops i have sit really tight and nicely to the top of the car. you know they lock in perfectly and stay firmly in place.. anyway, i just purchased a pair of really nice looking glass ttops i belive of an 89 ta. so i went to put on the glass ttops and they went on ok and all, but the big problem is the glass ttops dont sit snug to the top of the car, if you move them up and down they will slightly move (the drivers side isnt at all tight) i was wondering, is there a way i can adjust how tightly the ttops sit to the top of the car, or am i going to have to return the ttops. let me know. thanks.

 

remove the screw underneeth the hole that the tops go into. gently pull down the plastic trim pieces in the front and rear.

OR you can remove all the screws and remove the trim pieces al togeather.

then there are a cam like deal where you can adjust the pieces where they lock into place...

hope that helps...

By the way I might be interested in old "Plastic" t-tops... no matter what the condition AS LONG AS they a have all of the hardware, (both metal strips, and all the handles etc)

Looking into making replacement plastic, and need a supply...

I am NOT desperate so don't think I will be giving top dollar, considering to most of you there essentially worthless.

John

 

john, thanks for the help, is it hard to make the adjustment? and as for my old ttops, i dont think i really wanna sell then unless i get like a good price. it would be more worth it for me to keep them then to sell them. knowing my luck i would need them for some crazy reason. thanks

 

im looking of where to find plastic ttops, they sound much better then my glass ones... i hate t-tops. anyways, where would i go to find em?

 

anyway*

 

may i ask why you feel plastic is better than glass?

 

the plastic ones spider web, i prefer glass for overall appearance,

 

my plastic t-tops were really fscked up, but some wet sanding and a few hours of polishing fixed them.

 

mostly cause they are lighter, if i ever plan on taking them off thed be easier to store and i wouldnt feel neasy about breaking them...

 

Plstic ones actually break down over time from the SUN and UV rays, actually even some of the vinyl in your interior attacks the plastic... Unfortunately they are NOT as good as Glass tops, BUT they are lighter... there are some companies replacing plastic with a Glass top... But that ruins the originality of a car... I want to take old tops and replace the plastic in them... for SHOW purposes only of course...

I got a set of plastic T-tops from a junk yard, they wanted $70 each, talked them down to $20 for the PAIR when I showed them that they were cracked, and VERY rough shape... the one that got them was "NO one else would want them" and then one guy behind the counter said that they were REALLY rough... that made the deal.

BUT I can fix all of that, once I make a simple mold, mill the edges...

John

 

You own a Milling Machine??:hail: :hail: :hail:

*** man.. i miss the ol times in machine shop... as soon as i get all my pics developed ill start posting some things.. i made this awesome Automatic Shift **** on a lathe... All aluminum with a brass button then it was buffed... it was beautiful. but ***.. i wish i had a milling machine... how did you make a mold.. and is it possible to make scratched up plastic clear again???

 

depends on how deep the scratches are. wet sanding + polishing worked with mine

 

No matter HOW deeep the scratches are it will be possible to make it clear again, even the little spider scratches you can revive... CRACKS however are not possible to repair...

ANYWAY...

What I am saying a deep gouge is going to take you an awful long time, not to mention by the time you get done there will be a distortion if not done properly... Sometimes it is cheeper to get new because your time is worth something, and it is not cost effective.

The little spider cracks that shine like nothing else in the sun are actually called crazing, and in most cases they are just below the surface, but they are difficult to easily remove because of their depth...

If you have little "spiderweb" cracks on the surface that are caused by the hard coat then that might be a different story, it might be easier than the crazing, but I am not familiar wiht these so I dunno...

 

Sorry to ruin your thread man... but what exactly whoudl i use to polish plastic?? what grit sand paper?

 

your not forgiven!!!!!:lala: :lala: :lala:

 

Well, treat it like paint, it really depends on what your problem is and how bad.

If you have deep scratches, you would start with a 400 or g** forbid a 320 or 220... Use wet dry and keep it WET, even use a spray bottle if needed. Once you have the scratch OUT then start working your way up to 2000, for example we use 400 then 600 or 1000 (use water) to get the scratches out of what the 400 made... then take the 1500 (use water) to get out what the 1000 made and then 2000 (use water) to get out what the 1500 made, then polish with a good automotive paint.

NOTE: WITH EACH CHANGE OF SAND PAPER, You HAVE TO SAND A LARGER AREA. otherwise you will have scratches on the edges of where you stoped sanding... You might start with a 6" circle and end up at 12" or 18"

a helpful hint is to do a larger than your scrath area, for example, if you have a 2" long straight scratch, you would start with a 6" DIA sanding pattern... then when you do the next finer sanding paper, go in the OPPOSITE direction, and when the scratches are out from the previous sand paper then move on and go to another angle on your sanding so you can see how well you are doing...

IF you sand ALWAYS in the same pattern, whether it be in circles or in a straight line, then when you go to a finer sanding paper you cant tell if you have the scratches from the previous sand paper out.

This is NOT paint, but some of the techniques work the same... I do some plastic polishing, and when I do my paint, it is SOOO easy in comparison... Be patient, and take your time... If the window is really badly damaged, you might not have anything to loose.

Hope that helps.

John

 

For the average lexan t-top, just polish it with some paint polish. I used some Meguires on mine and it made a HUGE difference. (The crazing is still there but from the outside of the car they look at least 100% better.)

 

i like my lexan t-tops!
they just need some polishing..