I have a 75 4 door Electra limited with a vinal top. it is in good shape with few small cuts. I have been told that these tops are notorious for causing rust. If I remove the top, can I just paint the roof and not have a top or will I need to get all new trim pieces. I would rather not have the top, and I plan on repainintg the whole car anyway. What do you guys suggest?
My '76 does not have a vinyl top. I don't think they look right on the hardtop model. You can take it off, but the metal roof underneath isn't finished like the rest of the car is. The car will get a little noisier in the rain. None of the chrome trim is connected to the vinyl except for the quarter windows, but the rear trim that is around the rear window will be removed; it is color-matched to the vinyl color. You also will have to fill in several holes with some bondo, where the old rear trim was mounted at the base of the c-pillar and just below the rear window a few inches above the back of the trunk lid. There is also a small trim piece that fits onto the top of the rear doors...those will need to be removed and filled with bondo. Not a big deal if the car is due to be painted. Make sure you have a good seal around the rear quarter windows. You will want to do something about the window trim around the quarter windows. Those are hard to replace, and they are made out of flimsy plastic, so be careful to save those. I have thought about going to a shop and having someone whip up a piece of trim that I could have plated and then put back on, right now I have nothing, and doesn't look right since the other windows all have chrome.
Is it the thick padded roof with the frenched in rear window,or the thin padded roof with crome around rear glass?
It is a vinal roof, it feels as if it has some padding, there is chrome around the rear window, the padding does seem to be pretty thin, maybe 1/8 of an inch, if that. There is also chrome around the rear opera window.
If you don't like the padded roof, you can take it off and have a body shop prep and paint the roof section. Having the chrome around the rear glass makes it easier.You car has the thin padded roof. Some of these cars came with an optional thick padded roof with a Frenched in rear window with no chrome. If you were to get your whole car painted,the vinyl could be removed and all of it painted one color,as if the car came without a padded roof option. I have seen some Electra models that had no vinyl,painted one color.they don't look bad.
Hi I removed the opera windows on my 76 and put on a new vinyl top and I thinks it looks good, much nicer without the opera windows.
