T-Top Panels Restoration
The top side of my T-Top panels were painted when we painted the body (for more on the body painting project, follow this link). Apparently, we didn't do a very good job of protecting the bottom side of the T-top panels from paint overspray. In addition to that, the weatherstripping was old and in desperate need of replacing.
The picture below shows the underside of one of my T-Top panels as it looked after we painted the top side. To prepare for painting the top side, we removed the stainless steel trim that runs along the outside edges. I had also removed the vinyl trim panel from the underside as well as the weatherstripping.
The stainless steel trim pieces were held in place with pop rivets. I removed the rivets by removing the heads with a drill and then punching the rivet shafts through their mounting holes. The problem with this procedure was that I had a bunch of rivet shafts rolling around inside of the T-Top. To remove the spent shafts, I drilled a hole as shown in the picture below. Then I turned the T-Top over and rocked it painstakingly back and forth until eventually each of the rivet shafts fell through the hole. Later, when the trim pieces were reinstalled, they covered the hole that I had drilled.
After all the hardware was removed and the underside of the T-Top was cleaned, I painted the exposed area of the underside with flat black enamel paint.
Each piece of hardware was individually cleaned and then reinstalled. New weather stripping was installed. Finally, the stainless steel trim along the front and outter edges of the T-Top was pop riveted back in place as seen below.
The final step was to install a new vinyl covered headliner to the underside of the T-Top.
