Hardtop vinyl reattachment

[mlbryant8]

Have a couple of spots on my hardtop where the vinyl is loose. Anyone successfully re-glue their vinyl?

[flyboyx]

at the scallop behind the rear quarter window? they all pretty much do that when exposed to hot temps for any period of time. mine is loose there a bit too. someone posted here that they tried using a heat gun. i remember reading that they melted the vinyl a bit. i can't imagine how that would possibly work anyway. the material is under tension and wants to be flat.

i was thinking about taking the top off the car, setting it on its side, getting a syringe, filling it with some kind of adhesive, and injecting it in the area. i think one would need to make a mold that conforms to that area of the top and clamp it there for a few hours while it dries.

[mlbryant8]

mine is loose at the driver's corner near the mounting pin. Easy access just don't know if there is a particular product that others have tried successfully.

[GT BMW E30]

at the scallop behind the rear quarter window? they all pretty much do that when exposed to hot temps for any period of time. mine is loose there a bit too. someone posted here that they tried using a heat gun. i remember reading that they melted the vinyl a bit. i can't imagine how that would possibly work anyway. the material is under tension and wants to be flat.

i was thinking about taking the top off the car, setting it on its side, getting a syringe, filling it with some kind of adhesive, and injecting it in the area. i think one would need to make a mold that conforms to that area of the top and clamp it there for a few hours while it dries.

That was me. I used the heat gun to soften up the material so I can get it to fit those contoured side areas. It worked good but I left heat gun pointed at a section to long as I ran the putty knife on the material. I saw that Napa and Advance Auto sells a syringe filled with glue. I never bought it. I have tried contact cement and heavy duty 3m spray. Neither worked for me.

I have been looking for some fabric to redo mine.

[flyboyx]

At this point, you might be better off painting it your body color.

[JWHIII]

The syringe filled with glue sounds like a good idea. My top isn't too bad yet so I'm going to hold off until either someone else tries it first or my top gets a lot worse.

[DRTSRFR]

The problem is that your trying to re-glue an area that can't be cleaned, and throwing glue on top of old glue that's already compromised.

[mlbryant8]

I can clean the area where my vinyl is loose so I am assuming that any glue for vinyl would work?

[DRTSRFR]

It will as long as the surfaces are clean.
I use 3m vinyl top adhesive. I believe it has better resistance to heat.

My experience isn't from doing the top covering itself. I had a saggy headliner, and attempted to glue it a few times with little success. I finally pulled up one side and took a stiff brush to the inside of the top which removed most of the old glue, blew it out with compressed air and re-attached. It's been holding strong for 3 years now.

[Gingerrella]

I'm planning on taking mine off and color matching it also. If possible, I'll try and save the vinyl when I do it, in case any of you want a new piece. But as other people already stated, mine is not bonded around the scalloped edges anymore either.

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[GT BMW E30]

What do you guys think about recovering hardtop in same material as softtop?