T-top Refurbishment
Like much of the rest of the car, the T-tops needed some attention. Overall, they were in pretty good shape, but since I was repainting the car a different color, they had to be disassembled for paint prep. I am expecting this to be a simple tear down, clean, refurbish, paint, and reassemble task. I am not planning any modifications or upgrade to the existing T-tops at this time. .
At right are some disassembly pictures. The foam barrier was a surprise and only present on the second T-top I disassembled. I assume it's a noise / vibration measure and plan to replace it with some seat foam from a hobby shop. I kept the foam and believe it to be a half inch thick. Stay tuned as I use the existing foam as a template for the new foam.
There are some screws that hold the weatherstrip in place. This is in addition to the white pins that push through holes in the T-top. There are four of these screws, and in this case, they were seized up on the driver side T-top. I drilled the head off and removed the weather strip. Once the weatherstrip is removed, there is a T-top locking mechanisms that can be accessed.
In this case, the screws on the driver side were rusted in place and I could not get them out without a drill. I was able to drill the heads off, which let me remove the metal strip. Underneath there are some nut plates the need dealt with later in the project. These are shown on the right.
Once the weatherstrip is removed, the rod for locking the T-top in place is easily accessible for repair. This will be covered later in the walk through.
I removed the front trim piece with a five in one tool. There are some divots in the trim piece that hold it in place on the T-top. You need to drive the five in one tool under the divots and lift it to expand the trim. Then a punch and hammer removes it from the T-top, with hopefully minimal damage.
Since I'm getting these ready for painting, I will stop here until they are sprayed and ready to go. The process of masking, painting, etc. is covered in a different walk through.