alright, i just bought an 87 base camaro with the ttops
i got the car home and find some pretty nasty rust spots on the metal lip around the tops but the bad spots are the black metal strips on top of the t-bar(the ones that pinch the gaskets in place). i want to take them out and bend some copies of them if possible, but after i unscrewed them and tried to pull them off they wouldnt budge and on further inspection, it looked like the metal pieces were actually one big piece. from what i could see under the strips are only surface rust sections, but i dont want to bend the metal or do anything drastic until im sure that i can take these out without completely tearing apart the roof.
any help would be much appreciated. thanks guys.

 

mines rusting there to, i just didnt wanna take it apart till i knew how it came off...i knew the screws wouldent be all that holds it on

 

there are screws holding it in under the weatherstripping.. and removing t-top weatherstripping is a finality (as in.. it rips, so u cant put it back on - im a stupid one who learned this the hard way)

 

soo, the only way to fix that rust is to take the weather stripping off....even if the weathstripping is in mint condition

 

As has already been mentioned, do a search on eBay. Both new and used ones show up regularly. It's a bit of a pain to get out. Some screws under the seals and some tar-like sealant under it. As carefull as I was I tore the t-top seals on the donor car I got mine from. No biggie since I have new t-top seals ready when I finally get around to doing the job on mine.

Lon