1970 Convertible top rebuild

[CarlIseminger]

As for the window, that would be my big worry. Once you cut, it is too late to change your mind. I have seen a couple with the window too high and one with it way too low. So I understand your concern about the window placement.

I haven't seen this idea on bugs yet, but years ago, I remember a neighbor put a new top on his car and didn't put a rear window in it just for this very reason. I thought it looked rather good without the window.

Another time, I saw a slightly customized 65 Lincoln 4 door vert with a small, very small window in the rear. Made me thing that if I ever have a vert and needs a new roof, might go that route.

[Boble]

[VEGDRABBITS]

Thanks, I agree that it probably doesn't matter, and so will wait until the top cover is on, and cut that in first. Since the headliner will be tacked to the window last, I should be able to control the final tension placed on it, and avoid the tear possibility of it getting too tight, indicated in an earlier post.

I'm not going to get much done this weekend, going out of town. It's bad timing, because we are supposed to hit 90 degrees, which would make that top cover pretty easy to work with. I test fit it last night and it was very tight. I'm definitely going to roll it out in the sun when it comes time to line it up for real.
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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[VEGDRABBITS]

I did manage to get something done on Sunday. I apologize for the pics, my garage is already a dark place, and the black of the top material really sucks the light out of the flash.

I tried the laser level, first getting the car jacked to level, then leveling and centering the window. It might have helped a bit, but really was just as confusing as without. In the end I just measured as close as I could, then paced off a bit and eye-balled it. I set the window onto the webbing with spray adhesive and a couple of screws.

After a quick test fit of the corner foam in the pockets (all included in the padding kit), I adhesive sprayed them into the pockets and positioned them up agains the rear window. I used clamps to hold them in place while stapling. After they were in, a layer of foam was glued into place over the rear bow to hide the staples and padding transition.

I had time to test fit the cover, and it looks pretty good. It was late, so I need to wait for a nice sunny day for the final stretching and mounting of the cover. The cold vinyl was not streching at all.

Corner pad...

Clamped, and feel around the window to make sure it buts right up to the window frame...

Stapled into place, and foam transition strip glued on. The window was just set into place for these pics, and to check that all the staples so far have been driven in far enough to leave room for the window...

Test fit...

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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[VEGDRABBITS]

I can't remember how my old top was, I took it off so long ago. Can anyone tell me if the rear anchoring cable actually passes through the top cover in the corners? The way the welt is sewn in, there is kind of a tunnel in the seam at each corner, and I'm thinking it must pass through, but it is a head scratcher. The only other way is the cable somehow slips out the bottom and disappears behind the cover and in through the hole in the body.
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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[Q-Dog]

Yes, you make a hole and the cable goes through the top cover.
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[VEGDRABBITS]

OK, so over the weekend there was a flurry of activity. By the time I stopped to take pictures the cover was on and looking good. On Sunday we reached a temperature of 90 degrees, and luckily I had all day to mess with the top, so I rolled it out into the alley and let it bake for about an hour.

The night before I had finished the fitting of the leading edge over the header bow, and positioned the side tension cables through the top.
The top comes with strings sewn in that are used to pull the side tension cables through. First run the front of the cable through the spring, then make a loop with the attached tiny sleve and crimp it down to hold tight. Now pull the cable through with the string, and make another loop with the other sleeve, but leave uncrimped for final tensioning later.

The front pocket positioning requires punching small holes to allow the guide pins to pass through. After I was sure the side-to-side alignment was even, and the welt ran perfectly along the bottom leading eddge, I used spray adhesive to set it in place. The adhesive did not seem to do a good job, and I knew this would be a high tension area, so added a row of staples along the bottom (where the header bow seal would cover up once in place). This was pretty stressful, and I had to check a lot to make sure it was staying in alignment. As a final touch I put the plastic header trim piece in place using screws and finishing washers...

After the top had warmed in the sun, I set about fitting the rear tension cable. At this point the front pocket was set in place, but the flaps along the sides (by the latches) and the flaps along the C-pillars were not attached. There are sewn-in channels in the rear corners that allow the cable to pass through and into the body. Be gentle with these, the stitching on mine started to come loose while I was working the cable through! After both ends are through, move top cover slightly side to side until you are satisfied with the alignment (check that both sides will cover the frame along the top of the windows). Then put on the cable washer and nuts, getting at least one good turn onto the threads, but otherwise leaving as loose as possible

Now comes the most nerve-wracking part of all, getting that cable in the groove. To do this you will need to open the top up. Try to find a good balance between slightly open (too tight) and halfway open (too baggy to work with). I used a 12" long 2"X4" between the header bow and windshield frame. The biggest problem I encountered was the appearance of the corners. After spending a good hour getting it pulled/rolled/pursuaded down into the channel I had some raw fingertips, and horrible looking corners! The corners under the tension of the top closing pull up and show daylight through to the inside of the car. Awful looking!. I had to take the wire back off, and "roll" or "twist" the corner to get it to cover the body properly. Add to this problem the fact that the stiching was trying to come undone along the sewn in area where the cable passes through (think of the string on a bag of charcoal, or dog food... it was just popping stitches each time I touched it!). After I got it to look good by repositioning (and closing and opening the top to tension it - ad nauseum), I showed the stiching to my wife and she thinks she can make a few quick stitches without disturbing anything, and it should button up that area. Right now I am probably the only one that would notice, but at the show this Sunday I don't want to be answering a bunch of annoying "what's wrong with your top" questions.

So now that I was happy with the corners I slowly started running down the tension on the wire, side to side, while also tapping up the welt with the rubber handle of a hammer, so the wire would suck up and hide nicely. Finally I put a screw with finishing washer which holds down the corner area, and takes some of the tension for that area. Having a warm top for that step was critically important. I know a lot of folks rip these corners trying to get them down far enough!

Next I spray adhesived/clamped the flaps along the front sides, and stapled the C-pillar flaps in place. The front requred a couple of small relief cuts in the corner, and the rear required some trimming, but otherwise pretty easy and straight-forward. I spent the rest of the day cutting and mounting the seals. They also went in pretty easy, but I had the originals to copy from. If yours are missing, good luck!

Finally I rolled it back into the garage, and hoped that something wouldn't "pop" overnight when the temps went back down. It was drum tight!...

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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[VEGDRABBITS]

Monday night I was able to spend some time doing easy things, like putting in the chrome trim for the rear window. I got new trim for the front nd rear window from Wolfsburg West. At first it looked like the curve was on the wrong side, but once I got started it made sense. Make sure to do this before putting the window in. It goes in easy, but I'm not so sure I will be able to put the trim in on the front. The windshield is already installed, and I was unable to get it in so gave up for now...

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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[VEGDRABBITS]

I just stumbled across this C-pillar picture. you can see that the black top cover listings are sliced away on the inside edge of the new seals. Make sure you lay your staples for the listings right under where you know the seal will hide them. If you tug the listing material up slightly, and have a sharp blade, you can slice them clean without going into the headliner material that is glued to the C-pillar.

Also in this shot you can see that in 1970 the headliner material is screwed directly into the metal frame. There is no wood inner quater facing, which threw me for a loop. That wood piece was fazed out at some point during the year (as far as I can tell) and so some will have wood and some will not. I verified this was the case with a call to Chuck's. It made things easy, and I was glad to not have to buy more wood pieces...

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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[VEGDRABBITS]

Ok, so I couldn't put off the window cut-in any longer. Last night I got out some chalk, a box cutter, and opened a beer to clear my head. I felt around the rear to locate the window frame, chalked it, then made another chalk line 2" to the inside of the first line. The thinking being that 1 -1/2" inches is needed to wrap around the tacking ring, and the extra 1/2" is because I wanted to give myself lots of room. When making all cuts, especially the relief cuts in the corners, you need to remember you can't "uncut" if you go too far.

I sliced into the cover first, being careful not to go through the headliner below. Then made some more cuts taking small bites towards the frame, wrapping the matirial down against the frame periocdically to make sure not to go to far. As soon as you cut in, the back goes loose and baggy, and you wonder will it ever look as good as it did before you cut!...

Then I tried to use spray glue on a few pieces, thinking it would tack up nice and allow me to adjust, repostion, and hold while I stapled. It didn't really help, and actually made it more difficult because my hands started getting sticky. After stapling those sections, I gave up on the glue and went with staples all around. Wrinkles pop up easily, so go slow, and if you get one keep repositioning the section, and adjusting those around, until it evens out. Also make sure the tension for the above and below the flat sections of the frame is good and tight, since those areas don't have any padding to butt up against. If they get loose, it looks really bad.

Next was the headliner cut in. Follow the same concept, except with more relief cuts. Hopefully you can use less tension than was used on the cover because I've heard the headliner gets very tight when the top is closed, and can even tear. I kept it as loose here as possible while still avoiding wrinkles. I guess time will tell if it will rip or not.

Hmmm, I thought I had the wire tucked up enough, but in this shot the flash is pointing out that I need to drive it up a bit more...

You can see from this shot of the profile that the shaping is good, and I think positioning the window frame on the outside (top) of the webbing, and making sure the webbing wraps to the outside face of the rear wooden body tack ring, really helped to avoid the "sunken-window" look...

Go have a celebratory beer, and let your blood pressure return to normal!

Next up is fitting the rear window (blood pressure back up!).
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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[Nigelbug]

Hi, Thanks for sharing your installation story the pictures are great.

I have been thinking of replacing the headliner on my 74 vert with something a little more funky. Am I right in thinking that I need to remove the top to get at the fixing for the headlining?

[VEGDRABBITS]

Unfortunately yes, the top cover has to come off. You would not be able to get it unattached from the header bow with the top on. And even if you could get it attached to the other bows somehow, it would be extemely hard to have it come out looking right.

I got the window in last night, so I'm all done! I grabbed the camera and found out the batteries are dead. I'll get the pics up as soon as I can. Our one and only VW show is this Sunday! The weather calls for a chance of rain, but who cares? If anything, it will give me a chance to test the top!
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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[Cusser]

[Boble]

[Boble]

[VEGDRABBITS]

Yes, the window went in better than I expected. I wrapped the inner seal channel about one and a half times with nylon cord, then silicone sprayed it a bunch. My wife held pressure from the outside while I pulled on the cord. I got a false start the first time because the window was not pushed in hard enough. On the second try I had her push extra hard with one hand directly opposite where I was pulling the cord. Every few inches I would stop and push up against the seal I had just rolled over, to fully seat it. The last thing I would check from the outside is if there are any gaps between the top cover and the window seal, especially in the lower corners. Mine had none, but I've heard that old tops shrinking can distort the metal window frame, and I suppose that might cause the seal to not reach all the way out to the top cover, and let water in.

That strap method is ingenious. I've also seen folks weave piano wire into the seal and rachet it in from the inside. I was skeptical about having the window pushed in so hard, thinking it would rip through, but that area is pretty tough by the time it is all built up and padded. It retained it's shape as soon as we were done. I still need to get a pic up!
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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[fred69vert]

[VEGDRABBITS]

Here are the final pics of the window in, and some other finishing shots. I still need to anchor down the headliner below the rear window, but that will have to wait until I start the carpet project. I'm pleased with how it turned out. It is much better than I thought I could do. I suppose you get better the more you do, and since I went with vinyl, I'll probably have to do it again... maybe a couple times over the years.

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70 Convertible
73 RD350

[Boble]

Really nice work!!!

Just a litle hint I picked up at a site kalled www.vwlinkan.se.

This easy-to-make tool helps hammering in the wire under the rear flange.

[DStar]

I'd like to buy that rear window wood tacking frame, if you still have it.
The one in this pic:

I also have a 70 and just spent $1500 on all the large parts. All my wood was bad....and I know I will have to buy most of the small parts and screws also.


Thanks!

Don