Painting E30 hardtop

[Teah]

I'm about to get painted my hardtop too. That skin and glue was easy to get off but how did you got those trims off from the top?
Thank you in advance

[mr2peak]

There's no way to clean it out. Just have to inject a thin glue solution and hope for the best. Worst case, it doesn't work and I'm in the same situation. Then I'll look into a vacuum bag and try to find the correct material to re-finish the top, but that's going to be a few hundred for the equipment alone.

[flyboyx]

you will need to find a way to clean all the glue out of there first.

[mr2peak]

You need to make a large vacuum bag with plastic sheet to re-cover the top, the same way vacuum bags are made for large composite layups. That's how the tops were built originally.

The scallops on my top are beginning to pull away as well. I'm going to lay the top on its side, inject some glue, and then balance a bag of water over the scallop. That should press the fabric down and hold it, one side at a time.

[flyboyx]

I'm sure it can be done. getting the fabric to stick into the scallop behind the side window could be challenging to say the least. this method would have originality, but personally, i really don't like the look of the vinyl. i think body color would look so much nicer. i suppose the reason there is a thread about painting hardtops and not one about recovering them is because most others feel this way too.

[jake5]

anyone ever have theirs re-skinned?

[GT BMW E30]

If you can remove the sides of the skin in good shape, I am willing to buy it.

ALSO, I may have a lead on something that looks very very close to the outer skin. I am waiting for a sample to be mailed to me. I will post pics when it arrives.

im in no way an expert on this but from my understanding it has to be totally stripped off and then worked on and then painted . maybe someone else can explain more in depth

[Cha Ching]

Has anyone tried to go on top of the "fabric" that is on hard top? It doesn't appear to be porous so it leads me to believe that one could plastidip or do a vinyl wrap over top of the fabric.

I plan to re do my HT in the summer this year but my plan would be to strip the fabric fill in the fiber glass as needed and then have the top professionally wrapped in Vinyl. But I still wonder about just going over top the fabric...

Since the outer skin of the hardtop is a rubberized-type material, I think it would be a terrible choice to try and, "go over it" with vinyl or plastidip. Whatever you applied to the top surface would come out looking like crap and have very little real-world life expectancy. But that's just my opinion.

The upholsterer that redid the headliner in my hardtop had a specialist come out and analyze my outer skin to see if it could be patched since I have a couple, small "bald spots". The specialist said no, because the wear had occurred along the edges and the material used to cover the worn patches wouldn't last very long.

I am giving thought to having my bodyshop guy strip the outer layer and spray the top to match the car. The more I see it, the better it looks.

[vvaughn]

Has anyone tried to go on top of the "fabric" that is on hard top? It doesn't appear to be porous so it leads me to believe that one could plastidip or do a vinyl wrap over top of the fabric.

I plan to re do my HT in the summer this year but my plan would be to strip the fabric fill in the fiber glass as needed and then have the top professionally wrapped in Vinyl. But I still wonder about just going over top the fabric...

im in no way an expert on this but from my understanding it has to be totally stripped off and then worked on and then painted . maybe someone else can explain more in depth

[pilot_anderson]

Has anyone tried to go on top of the "fabric" that is on hard top? It doesn't appear to be porous so it leads me to believe that one could plastidip or do a vinyl wrap over top of the fabric.

I plan to re do my HT in the summer this year but my plan would be to strip the fabric fill in the fiber glass as needed and then have the top professionally wrapped in Vinyl. But I still wonder about just going over top the fabric...

[aegul44]

whats the shaved 3rd brake light ? can you edumacate me on this? lol

Means you cut(remove) it, fill the gap and have perfect flat surface. Or you can swap trunk lid from coupe like gingerrella said.

[Gingerrella]

whats the shaved 3rd brake light ? can you edumacate me on this? lol

You just replace your trunk with a coupe trunk. I did it on my vert. Looks sooo much better!

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[vvaughn]

^^ and Tucked rear bumper, shaved third brake light, drop hats because front looks really high

whats the shaved 3rd brake light ? can you edumacate me on this? lol

[aegul44]

I said that referring to 2nd pic. It doesn't look tucked in there.

[vvaughn]

im looking for a rear valance and the back bumper is tucked. i was thinking about a set of coil overs to lower the car what do you guys recommend?